Lucasfilm Boss Kathleen Kennedy to Step Down

Kathleen Kennedy, who has overseen Lucasfilm and the Star Wars franchise since the company was sold to Disney by George Lucas, is stepping down.

That’s per Puck, who says Kennedy has told “friends and associates that she will exit as Lucasfilm president by the end of the year.” (In their article on the news, The Hollywood Reporter refers to it as “a retirement”; Kennedy turns 72 later this summer.)

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Kennedy joined Lucasfilm shortly before Lucas sold the company to Disney and then took over his role as its president upon the sale and his departure. Under her leadership, Star Wars returned to prominence in movie theaters, and became an ongoing TV franchise as well. The franchise’s early years under Kennedy were marked by one massive success after another. Disney’s first Star Wars film, The Force Awakens, is still the highest-grossing movie ever in the United States. Several other Star Wars films she produced became multibillion dollar hits.

But in recent years, the franchise’s track record has been a bit more uneven. For every The Mandalorian, there’s been a Book of Boba Fett, and after The Last Jedi became a polarizing film among fans, the franchise seemed uncertain how to conclude the so-called “Skywalker Saga.” Lucasfilm ultimately released the widely disliked The Rise of Skywalker — directed by The Force Awakens’ J.J. Abrams — which is still the most recent Star Wars to hit theaters some six years later.

There have been all sorts of reports of behind-the-scenes drama as well, with numerous projects getting announced (like Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron or Rian Johnson’s spinoff trilogy) and then never coming to fruition. There were high profile changes to projects mid-production too; Solo: A Star Wars Story began as a Phil Lord and Chris Miller movie, but they were let go int the middle of the shoot and replaced by Ron Howard. The finished film grossed less than $400 million worldwide — far less than half of what The Force Awakens earned in the U.S. alone.

With Kennedy moving on, it will be interesting to see how her era of Star Wars ages in the eyes of fans. George Lucas left Star Wars after years of hardcore nerds claiming he had abused their childhoods with the Prequel Trilogy. These days, a lot of fans claim to prefer those movies to Disney’s Star Wars efforts. In 15 years, will the current generation of fans say the same thing about Kennedy’s work? Only time will tell.

The next Star Wars movie, The Mandalorian & Grogu, is currently scheduled to premiere in theaters on May 22, 2026.