Kathleen Kennedy could step down from Lucasfilm when her contract is up at the end of the year, at least according to one report. While her retirement has yet to be confirmed by Disney or Lucasfilm brass, even the idea of her retiring has Hollywood buzzing like a lightsaber that’s been left on for too long.
Kennedy’s tenure at the company, if it is coming to an end, has been one of ambition and controversy. As she tried to chart new territory in a galaxy far, far away and serve her corporate overlords, she frequently waded into controversy and fan unrest. Attempting to sum up her time at Lucasfilm is difficult and troublesome, met with some historic highs and almost subterranean lows. Through it all, she never gave up. When the Empirical forces attempted to squash her, she always resisted.
“She knows or knew what she was doing, as she’s obviously a very well experienced producer/executive,” one top agent said. “But managing brands like ‘Star Wars’ is an impossible task because the fanbases of all fanboy IP are toxic. Her biggest weakness is that she decided to take the job in the first place.”
A long time ago …
Kathleen Kennedy’s appointment at Lucasfilm actually predates George Lucas’ sale of the company to Disney. She joined Lucasfilm in 2012, just months before Disney acquired the company for $4 billion. Since then, she has overseen the company’s most ambitious expansion since its formation in 1971.
It makes sense that Lucas would appoint her – he had known her for years.
Kennedy’s first production job was working for director John Milius. Milius was working on Steven Spielberg’s 1979 wartime comedy “1941” as a producer (he had also come up with the story alongside Spielberg protégés Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale), and Kennedy caught Spielberg’s attention.
“I remember Kathy came into the room with her steno pad and her pencil, and she was horrible at taking notes,” Spielberg told NPR in 2015. “She was terrible and didn’t know how to do it very well. But what she did know how to do was interrupt somebody in mid-sentence. We’d be pitching ideas back and forth, and Kathy — who was supposed to be writing these ideas down — suddenly put her pencil down and would say something like, ‘And what if he didn’t get the girl, but instead he got the dog?’ “
On 1981’s “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” Kennedy is credited as an associate to Spielberg; a year later, with “Poltergeist,” she was an associate producer. On “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial,” released the same summer as “Poltergeist,” she was elevated to producer. That same year she helped Spielberg found Amblin, with her future husband Frank Marshall. In 1991, she founded the Kennedy/Marshall Company and would continue to work with Spielberg up until she joined Lucasfilm. (Her last production credit on a Spielberg film was “Lincoln.”)
Kennedy’s time at Lucasfilm represented another step up in a career almost exclusively defined by them, particularly after the sale to Disney.
“Kathleen Kennedy is one of the most legendary producers of my lifetime,” said a franchise film producer. “I wondered at the time why did she want to take over from George. She made a bunch of TV shows and movies with a mixed degree of success. I don’t know if anyone will do better, but I wish her the best.”
Imperial expansion
Under Kennedy, the company moved into live-action television series, with Disney+ hits like the Zeitgiest-capturing “The Mandalorian” and critical darling “Andor.” The theatrical film slate expanded beyond the core saga with two “Star Wars Story” spinoff movies (the $1 billion-grossing “Rogue One” and disappointing “Solo”). Animation was prioritized with additional episodes and further spinoffs of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” and international coproductions like “Visions.”
Most significantly, a new sequel trilogy taking place after 1983’s “Return of the Jedi” was completed, with each film in the trilogy earning over $1 billion. She balanced corporate demands, like the need for programming to fill the Disney+ pipeline and the introduction of The High Republic (an ambitious, transmedia campaign centered around a new section of the “Star Wars” timeline), with practical concerns about keeping the brands alive.
And for sure, there were setbacks. Kennedy infamously clashed with a number of high profile filmmakers. She kicked Phil Lord and Christopher Miller off of “Solo,” replacing them with Ron Howard. Discussed feature projects from Guillermo del Toro, Josh Trank, Kevin Feige, Patty Jenkins, Damon Lindelof, Colin Trevorrow (who was initially supposed to direct the third part of the sequel trilogy) and the “Game of Thrones” team of David Benioff & D.B. Weiss all failed to materialize, along with a new trilogy from Rian Johnson.
Some projects came to fruition but took entirely different forms, like “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” which was intended to be a feature but was retrofitted to a limited streaming series.
Even more tellingly, Kennedy had wanted to turn “Children of Blood and Bone,” the bestselling, critically acclaimed book trilogy by Tomi Adeyemi, into a big new franchise. Kennedy wanted to expand Lucasfilm beyond merely “Star Wars” and Indiana Jones, harkening back to the days when Lucas ran the company.
Back then, the company had a hand in everything from Jim Henson’s “Labyrinth” to Paul Schrader’s “Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters” to Francis Ford Coppola’s “Tucker: The Man and His Dream” to screwball comedy “Radioland Murders” (which Coppola utilized as a testing ground for cutting-edge visual effects from his own Industrial Light & Magic).
“Children of Blood and Bone” was unique in the fantasy space because its mythology wasn’t borrowed from European folklore but rather from West African tradition. The movie was originally set up at Fox, and when Disney acquired those assets in 2019, it was announced that 20th Century and Lucasfilm would co-produce the adaptation, with Kennedy working alongside then 20th Century head Emma Watts. But the movie stalled in preproduction, with Adeyemi unhappy with the pace of development. Paramount stepped in to buy the rights, and Cynthia Erivo, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lashana Lynch, Idris Elba, and Viola Davis are starring in the film.
There were other misfires. A streaming series that expanded on the lore of Ron Howard’s “Willow” failed to bring in a modern audience (it was unceremoniously stripped from Disney+) and the fifth Indiana Jones film, “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” was a critical and commercial dud, effectively shutting the door on the franchise. But as Dr. Jones reminded us, it’s not the age, it’s the mileage.
Trouble in hyperspace
If there is a fulcrum point to Kennedy’s reign it is likely the 2017 release of Johnson’s “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” The movie was an artistic triumph and a hit with critics, making $1.334 billion globally. But it rubbed fans the wrong way, with vitriolic comments flooding the internet as they took issue with everything from the depiction of Luke Skywalker (a series-best Mark Hamill) to a lack of lore for the villain Snoke (a motion-captured Andy Serkis) to what they assumed was DEI-mandated casting decisions (they took particular ire at Kelly Marie Tran’s Rose, to the point that Tran left social media altogether).
The feedback was questionable – even baffling – but the toxic response to the movie, along with Kennedy’s decision to announce a new trilogy manned by Johnson and his producing partner Ram Bergman, dogged her.
If you want to see how Kennedy was trapped between corporate demands and artistic impulses, look no further than Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Disney’s ambitious, 14-acre “Star Wars”-themed land that opened at Disney’s Hollywood Studios (part of the Walt Disney World resort outside of Orlando, Florida) and Disneyland in Anaheim.
Initially envisioned as a wildly interactive, immersive experience teeming with alien life and sentient droids, it was the victim of repeated budget cuts and second-guessing by Bob Chapek, who was then running the studio’s parks division. The land was built to accommodate live stunt shows, which only happened at the land’s grand opening.
Perhaps most damningly, each version of the land was meant to encapsulate a different trilogy – on one coast, Galaxy’s Edge would be set in the original trilogy and on the other, the sequel trilogy. Now both are trapped in space-amber, with the events taking place in between “The Last Jedi” and “The Rise of Skywalker,” although this fixed point in the canon has recently started to loosen.
Even more of a boondoggle was Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, a costly, cruise-like three-day experience at a “Star Wars”-themed hotel that was rumored to have cost upwards of $1 billion to design, develop and build. It was meant to open up an entirely new revenue stream for the company and to establish just how potent the Lucasfilm brand was, but it stayed open only 18 months, becoming a tax write-down and getting converted into office space.
A galaxy far, far away right now
Where will Lucasfilm be when and if Kennedy retires year’s end?
Well, “Star Wars” might be a little bit wobblier than when she joined Lucasfilm. At the time it was a deliberate place; under Kennedy the marketplace has been flooded with content. In a way it has made the brand less special. “The Mandalorian” was a homerun but the series that have followed, besides “Andor,” have been middling at best, actively bad at worst, with most failing to connect with audiences in the same way that original live-action series did.
While there are projects in the works from Shawn Levy and James Mangold, plus a new trilogy overseen by Simon Kinberg, next year’s “The Mandalorian and Grogu,” a big-screen spinoff of the streaming show, will be the first theatrical project from the studio since 2019. By the end of the year there will be additional animated material and the highly anticipated second season of “Andor,” but the galaxy far, far away will be awfully quiet once she leaves.
It’ll be fascinating to see who replaces her. Dave Filoni, the 50-year-old chief creative office of Lucasfilm, seems a likely choice, although his instincts have often been to look inward instead of outward. He’s a fan of lore and has an encyclopedic understanding of the property, thanks to many years under George Lucas. But his approach can be distancing to some. “Andor” is the greatest live-action show Lucasfilm has done, and it’s the series with the least amount of input from Filoni.
But finding anyone willing to navigate the toxic fandom of “Star Wars” will be a task worthy of the most skilled Jedi warrior. To get past the years of resentment, misogyny, bigotry and pettiness of the core fanbase and carve out a bigger, more expansive, more inclusive Lucasfilm will be a challenge for anybody looking to take on the job.
As Yoda once said: do or do not. There is no try.
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