There’s been a disturbance within the org chart. On Thursday, Disney formally confirmed that longtime Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy was stepping down from her management position, and that two executives would take her place: Dave Filoni will tackle artistic management of Lucasfilm as president and chief artistic officer, and Lynwen Brennan will function co-president, overseeing the way forward for Star Wars.
Kennedy will not merely disappear right into a pile of Jedi robes, nevertheless. She’s going to as an alternative transition to full-time producing, together with Lucasfilm’s upcoming function movies The Mandalorian and Grogu and Star Wars: Starfighter, arriving in theaters in 2026 and 2027, respectively.
Filoni has been a part of Lucasfilm since 2005, and has helped form the artistic course of the Star Wars universe in collection like Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Rebels, and The Mandalorian. He was instrumental in establishing the corporate’s animation studio and labored intently with Star Wars creator George Lucas. He at present serves as showrunner for Ahsoka, now in manufacturing for its second season, and is teaming with Jon Favreau on The Mandalorian and Grogu.
Brennan has been with Lucasfilm since 1999, working at Industrial Mild & Magic, the place she rose by means of the ranks to turn into its chief in 2009. She was appointed basic supervisor of Lucasfilm in 2015 and president and GM of Lucasfilm Enterprise in 2024.
“After we acquired Lucasfilm greater than a decade in the past, we knew we have been bringing into the Disney household not solely one of the beloved and enduring storytelling universes ever created, but additionally a staff of extraordinary expertise led by a visionary filmmaker – somebody who had been handpicked by George Lucas himself, no much less,” mentioned Bob Iger, CEO of the Walt Disney Firm, in a information launch saying Kennedy, Filoni, and Brennan’s strikes. “We’re deeply grateful for Kathleen Kennedy’s management, her imaginative and prescient, and her stewardship of such an iconic studio and model.”
Along with serving as president of Lucasfilm for 14 years, Kennedy was a co-founder of Amblin Leisure with Steven Spielberg and Frank Marshall. She produced landmark movies like E.T. the Additional-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park, Again to the Future, Schindler’s Listing, and The Sixth Sense.
“When George Lucas requested me to take over Lucasfilm upon his retirement, I couldn’t have imagined what lay forward,” mentioned Kennedy in a press release. “It has been a real privilege to spend greater than a decade working alongside the extraordinary expertise at Lucasfilm. Their creativity and dedication have been an inspiration, and I’m deeply pleased with what we’ve completed collectively. I’m excited to proceed growing movies and tv with each longtime collaborators and contemporary voices who symbolize the way forward for storytelling.”
“My love of storytelling was formed by the movies of Kathleen Kennedy and George Lucas,” mentioned Filoni. “I by no means dreamed I might be privileged to be taught the craft of filmmaking from each of them. From Rey to Grogu, Kathy has overseen the best enlargement in Star Wars storytelling onscreen that we’ve got ever seen. I’m extremely grateful to Kathy, George, Bob Iger, and Alan Bergman for his or her belief and the chance to steer Lucasfilm on this new position, doing a job I actually love. Could the Drive be with you.”
“Lucasfilm has performed such a significant half in my life,” mentioned Brennan. “It’s a neighborhood of inspiring storytellers with a insurgent spirit like no different, and I’m honored to hitch Dave Filoni in main us ahead. I’ve been so lucky to be taught from George Lucas, Kathy Kennedy, and Alan Bergman and have unwavering religion in Dave’s artistic imaginative and prescient for the subsequent chapter on this storied studio’s legacy.”
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