Kathleen Kennedyhas been at the forefront of Lucasfilm for 13 years, and she has had some huge successes and some devastating failures during that time. TheStar Warsfranchise has soared to new heights and crashed and burned time and time again thanks to unplanned changes, disjointed storytelling, and some errors of judgment when it comes to what fans actually want to see compared to what creatives think they want to see.
Reflecting on her career at Lucasfilm withScreenRantduring Star Wars Celebration, Kennedy explained how taking over the reins at Lucasfilm was an eye-opening experience for someone who, until that point, had been a filmmaker but not a studio executive. She said:
“I stepped into this never having really been an executive before. I’ve always been a filmmaker, and I was very intrigued to have a peek behind the curtain. And I’ve learned a tremendous amount … I’ve been so fortunate to have [this career] and still keep learning new things. It’s really been eye-opening to see how complex this is.
“Since George sold the company and it became part of Disney, [the questions have been about] where these movies actually fit within a company this size, how do they remain unique to Lucasfilm, how do you preserve that culturally, and how do we hang on to the values and the ideas that George created around this mythology, [which is] probably one of the most important mythologies in cinema?
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“I have an amazing team of people that work with me, [and] we talk about [that] all the time. There’s not a day that goes by that we’re not testing the waters and stress-testing what it is that George created. It’s been a wonderful experience.”
Kathleen Kennedy Is Not Going Anywhere
Just like every top executive in the industry, when things are not going quite as well as they could be, knives come out and talk of replacing the top dog comes into play. In the case of Kennedy, there have frequently been calls from groups within theStar Warsfandom for her to leave, andsome suggestions that she will be retiring soon.
According to the woman herself, that is not something that will be happening anytime soon, and with such a bold and far-reaching slate of projects now building, it is hardly surprising that she wants to stick around and see how it all turns out. In light of that, her response to suggestions of retirement was simply this:
“I’m not retired. I’m not going anywhere.”
Star Warsis set to expand in the future withseveral new theatrical releasesbeing developed by Shawn Levy, Taika Waititi, James Mangold, Jon Favreau, and Dave Filoni to name a few. Alongside more TV shows, games and other projects, theStar Warsfranchise is set to head towards its 50th anniversary with a brighter future than ever before, and Kathleen Kennedy will be driving it every step of the way.
