Kathleen Kennedy Expected to Retire at the end of 2025 via Hollywood Reporter

[Autbot_Benz]

After more than a decade in a galaxy far, far away, Kathleen Kennedy is charting a course toward retirement. The Lucasfilm boss has told associates she plans to retire by the end of 2025, Puck reported Monday night.

Reps for Kennedy and Lucasfilm were not immediately available for comment.

Kennedy joined Lucasfilm in 2012 as co-chair alongside Star Wars creator George Lucas, and a few months later took the reins after Disney paid $4 billion for the company and Lucas exited.

She relaunched the franchise, beginning with J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), which grossed more than $2 billion globally and reinvigorated the property as a big screen brand. Disney released a Star Wars film every year from 2015-2019 and then took a pause following Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which received a mixed response and earned just half of what Force Awakens had brought in just a few years earlier.

As Lucasfilm boss, Kennedy held one of the most visible and scrutinized jobs in Hollywood, and it was not always smooth sailing. She fired Chris Lord and Phil Miller as directors of Solo: A Star Wars Story in the middle of production. (The film went on to be the first Star Wars movie to lose money theatrically.) She also sidelined Rogue One: A Star Wars Story director Gareth Edwards, replacing him with Tony Gilroy, who was brought on to oversee reshoots. (The film became a $1 billion hit). Other projects were promised that never materialized, such as Rian Johnson’s trilogy, and another one overseen by Game of Thrones showrunners D.B. Benioff and David Weiss. Daisy Ridley’s upcoming return to Star Wars has been languishing in development since being announced to fanfare almost two years ago.

But even as Star Wars struggled to return to the big screen, the franchise found newfound life on Disney+, with The Mandalorian launching in November 2019 along with the streaming service. It became a breakout hit, spawning multiple spinoffs, including the critically acclaimed Andor, which returns for a second season in April, as well multiple shows that failed to hit the zeitgeist and sparked worries of diluting the Star Wars brand.

Coming up, Lucasfilm has The Mandalorian and Grogu from director Jon Favreau due out May 22, 2026 as the first big screen outing for the franchise since Rise of Skywalker.

Kennedy’s storied career includes work with Steven Spielberg and husband Frank Marshall, with collaborations including Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Gremlins (1984), The Color Purple (1985), The Goonies (1985), Empire of the Sun (1987), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (198 and the Back to the Future trilogy (1985-1990) and the Indiana Jones films, which concluded with last year’s Dial of Destiny. In all, she has produced or executive produced more than 70 films and been nominated for eight Oscars.

The news comes ahead of April’s Star Wars Celebration in Tokyo, where the future of the Star Wars franchise is expected to be unveiled.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/mo...lm-1235282440/

(If this is true


)

[neatoman]

[Andrew NDB]

Yeah, "if." I've been burned way too many times with this. Seeing will be believing.

And that's still crazy we won't see the Mandalorian movie until May of next year. They wrapped filming a ways back now and there are whole movies with as much or more CGI planned in them that haven't even shot yet that will be out before that.

[IMJ]

I mean she has to retire at some point. And the truth is this time it makes perfect sense - catastrophic failures at Marvel, the industry moving away from woke $#!(, and now a "retirement announcement" quietly disparate from Disney restructuring and everyone gets to save face about it.

I mean - it's not a victory for normalcy because I'd have liked it to be more proximate to all of the nonsense, but it does make sense. Doesn't really matter to me either way - I'm used to not paying for Star Wars content at this point and my only interaction with the franchise is buying the Retro 3.75" figures when I find them at discount for 4.95 or less.

[Andrew NDB]

Trump in office with an "anti-woke" agenda, Kathleen Kennedy out at Lucasfilm, and if the Skydance/Paramount deal finishes up and they decide (and they SHOULD) that Kurtzman and Secret Hideout are out with Star Trek... holy hell, we might just have ourselves a real renaissance of the arts. And not a Doctor Who fan, but if those latest rumors are true... that's going to be good for those fans, too.

[ZariusTwo]

CNN claim no decision has been made on her retirement plans

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/25/m...ney/index.html

[sdp]

Does it really matter? Damage is already done. Brand is forever tainted no matter who takes over.

[Stu_Padasso]

Originally Posted by sdp

Does it really matter? Damage is already done. Brand is forever tainted no matter who takes over.

The best thing to do would be to put everything on hold for five to ten years until the current crop of “creatives” move on and reset the franchise by de-canonizing the KK era of Star Wars.

Rumors per Overlord DVD are that Skydance wants Paramount to do exactly that to Kurtzman Trek.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by Stu_Padasso

The best thing to do would be to put everything on hold for five to ten years until the current crop of “creatives” move on and reset the franchise by de-canonizing the KK era of Star Wars.

Or just spend that time ruthlessly re-editing and reshooting large parts of the ST and re-releasing them. With George on board.

Rumors per Overlord DVD are that Skydance wants Paramount to do exactly that to Kurtzman Trek.

Please, please, please, please, please...

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by sdp

Does it really matter? Damage is already done. Brand is forever tainted no matter who takes over.

Oddly enough I agree with you here. The only fix is a complete reboot (which I don't think anyone wants), or some kind of deep, deep retcon, but even then they fired their shot with the original cast and didn't even put them together on-screen for even one movie. So yeah, it's done forever.

And let's face it - almost nobody has any real "love" for the cast of the new trilogy.

[Autbot_Benz]

****

[IMJ]

OMG the ego on that clown-activist-man-hater.

[ZariusTwo]

Sounds like she's actually verifying the reports, and will gradually push herself to the side and transition more power to the successor in a year

[CyberCubed]

Honestly what is there left to do with Star Wars at this point? Harrison Ford is (sadly) likely going to pass away in a few years, and Mark Hammil can probably come back as a force ghost if he wants to do it in the upcoming Rey movie.

The TV shows already gave people the Obi-wan series, the Boba Fett series, and series based on Jedi, kids in space, and a Rogue One prequel (for some reason). And the Mandalorion series ran its course and now is just getting a movie and baby Yoda/Grogu has worn out its appeal. Then stuff like the Clone Wars cartoons and Rebels also fleshed out those eras of Star Wars too so we finally saw how the entire Clone Wars actually played out.

We know we're getting a Rey movie eventually (episode X?), but other than that, what is there left to do? As said, the damage was already done. Luke, Han and Leia are dead in canon, their only son Kylo Ren is dead, and apparently this Luke never had any children.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by IMJ

OMG the ego on that clown-activist-man-hater.

Like I said... seeing will be believing at this point.

Originally Posted by ZariusTwo

Sounds like she's actually verifying the reports, and will gradually push herself to the side and transition more power to the successor in a year

Not really. It went from "Kathleen Kennedy is planning to retire at the end of 2025" to "Maybe I'll start thinking about retirement and make an announcement about it in 2026 -- probably, but who knows!"

[LeotheLateBloomer]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Honestly what is there left to do with Star Wars at this point?

Movie-wise nothing but that won't stop Disney from trying. I'm surprised they've gone this long without a new movie. All they really could do is continue to push out merchandise to make money and I guess more Disney Plus content.

[Cowabung-Gal]

So what? They’ll probably just hire someone even worse than her to take her place and Star Wars will continue being a dead franchise.