Kathleen Kennedy, the Lucasfilm President who oversaw the firing of Gina Carano, is stepping down after 14 years on the job.
According to Walt Disney, Kennedy will return to full-time producing, which includes work on The Mandalorian and Star Wars: Starfighter feature films.
Recalling how Kennedy was “handpicked by George Lucas,” Disney’s Bob Iger said they were “deeply grateful for Kennedy’s leadership, vision, and stewardship of the iconic studio and brand.”
The January 15 press release also praised Kennedy for “steering Star Wars to incredible box office heights,” and for bringing in new audiences.
Lucasfilm’s new bosses are Star Wars veterans, Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan.
Filoni steps up into the role of President and Chief Creative Officer, with Brennan signing on as Co-President.
The pair, Disney said, “will report to Disney Entertainment Co-Chairman Alan Bergman, and their close collaboration will carry Lucasfilm into its next chapter of storytelling.”
Their goal “is to build on Kennedy’s foundation of creative vision and operational leadership.”
Both Filoni and Brennan worked for George Lucas before Disney bought the franchise for around 4 billion in 2012.
Filoni’s credentials include “working closely with the Star Wars creator, and being instrumental in establishing the company’s animation studio.”
Among his creative achievements are Lucasfilm’s pre-Disney projects, The Clone Wars (animated) and Rebels.
Like Kennedy’s tenure after George Lucas handed over the business, Filoni and Brennan’s appointments are not without controversy.
The decision has sparked some online doubt about whether Filoni has the moxie needed to phase out the Woke Disney elements infiltrating the Star Wars universe. Or, more disastrously for the franchise, would he double down on them?
Recounting Kennedy’s controversies, Forbes contributor Erik Kain said, the former President’s decade and a half at the helm was divisive, and not without pause for concern.
Examples used were the post-Return of the Jedi, Star Wars ‘Sequel’ trilogies, and the “box office failure,” Solo: A Star Wars Story, which, according to Kain, “led to a major hiatus from Star Wars theatrical releases.”
Kain added that while Kennedy’s success with The Mandalorian and Andor managed to navigate the culture wars, her overall Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) push, “placed her at the nexus of those debates.”
Looking forward, Kain cautiously concluded,
“Lucasfilm needs a new vision and a coherent one if it hopes to ever recapture the magic of the original trilogy.”
“What direction Star Wars will go under Filoni and Brennan remains to be seen.”
“Without a shift in focus back toward what gives this franchise such broad and enduring appeal, it seems unlikely that a great deal will change at Lucasfilm.”
Although absent from Forbes’ list of Kennedy foibles few incidents illustrate them as blatantly as the firing of conservative Gina Carano.
Carano was “let go” from The Mandalorian over a social media post in 2020.
The decision involved Kennedy and had Disney boss Bob Igla’s blessing.
A big consequence for Disney was a lawsuit and the financial hit over freedom of speech, which resulted in a Lucasfilm settlement and ended in Carano’s favour.
There was also the PR mess. The decision further legitimised the term Woke Disney and left many non-Woke Disney fans (and employees) rightly wondering why the new push for “diversity and inclusion” was excluding them.
