Lucasfilm’s Massive Shake-up Signals Star Wars Is At A Crossroads
The retirement of Kathleen Kennedy comes with a list of updates for many Star Wars movies in development.
There are few more controversial characters in Star Wars than Kathleen Kennedy. The Lucasfilm president took on the role from George Lucas in 2012, and since then, she has been the first line of defense for the Star Wars universe, often facing ire for whatever fans were upset about, be that the decision to exclude “Legends” from canon to the backlash from The Rise of Skywalker.
But after 14 years, Kennedy is retiring, and her role is being assumed by two already-established figures: Dave Filoni, creator of Ahsoka Tano and current Chief Creative Officer of Lucasfilm, and Lynwen Brennan, Executive Vice President at Lucasfilm. Filoni will handle the creative direction of the company, while Brennan focuses on the business side, much like the James Gunn/Peter Safran pairing over at DC Studios. But alongside this announcement came updates on upcoming Star Wars projects — including a surprisingly disappointing update about one of Filoni’s pet projects.
Dave Filoni will lead the creative decisions of Lucasfilm after the exit of Kathleen Kennedy.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Dave Filoni’s anticipated directorial debut, a movie that was supposed to join together the different shows in the “Mandoverse” like The Mandalorian and Ahsoka, has been backburnered. With Filoni now in more creative control than ever, this is a surprising move, but it’s clear where the attention went instead: Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian and Grogu, which is coming to theaters in May.
It’s possible that the direction of Filoni’s movie may depend on the response to The Mandalorian and Grogu. The characters may be a hit on Disney+, but moving them to the silver screen is still a risk.
The future of the “Mandoverse” may lie with The Mandalorian and Grogu.
But it wasn’t all bad — apparently, the Simon Kinberg movie trilogy is still in development, and the scripts for Donald Glover’s Lando movie and Taika Waititi’s upcoming movie have been turned in. There weren’t any updates about the Rey sequel film, and Kennedy described James Mangold’s rumored Dawn of the Jedi movie to Deadline as “definitely breaking the mold and... on hold.”
So while power may have changed hands, it seems like the status quo is still the same at Lucasfilm — lots of irons in the fire, with the priorities constantly shifting. Hopefully, if The Mandalorian and Grogu is a success at the box office, we’ll see everything on the docket eventually reach fruition.
