{"id":33115,"date":"2026-01-16T21:48:04","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T02:48:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=33115"},"modified":"2026-01-16T21:51:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T02:51:22","slug":"kathleen-kennedy-steps-down-as-president-of-lucasfilm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=33115","title":{"rendered":"Kathleen Kennedy Steps Down as President of Lucasfilm"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p>\u00a9\u00a02015 &#8211; Lucasfilm<\/p>\r\n<p>After fourteen years, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm0005086\/\">Kathleen Kennedy<\/a> is stepping down as the president of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/list\/ls090593653\/\">Lucasfilm<\/a>. She will be replaced by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm1396048\/\">Dave Filoni,<\/a> its chief creative officer, and by Lynwen Brennan, the head of business affairs and operations for the studio. Filoni, 51, will serve as president and Brennan,58, will be the co-president. <br \/><br \/>Early in her career, the 72-year-old Kennedy produced <em><strong>E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial <\/strong><\/em><strong>and<\/strong><em><strong> Poltergeist<\/strong><\/em>, both in 1982. She has since produced several films in the Star Wars franchise, including two upcoming movies, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt30825738\/\"><em><strong>The Mandolorian and Grogu<\/strong><\/em><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt28069611\/\"><em><strong>Star Wars: Starfighter<\/strong><\/em>.<\/a><br \/><br \/>Filoni has been a creative dynamo for Lucasfilm for 21 years, having been involved with such successes as <em><strong>Ahsoka, The Clone Wars, The Mandalorian<\/strong><\/em>, and <em><strong>Star Wars Rebels<\/strong><\/em>. He was a protegee of George Lucas, who developed the original <em><strong>Star Wars<\/strong><\/em> film in 1977. The Welsh-born Brennan has been with Lucasfilm for 27 years, having started her career with Industrial Light &amp; Magic, a visual effects affiliate. Most recently, she managed Lucasfilm&#8217;s divisions overseeing games, publishing, and consumer products.<\/p>\r\n<p><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1774669342741533\" data-ad-slot=\"1211148813\" data-ad-format=\"auto\" data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\u00a0<br \/><br \/>Soon after her hiring, Kennedy oversaw the development of a number of highly successful films, such as <em><strong>Andor<\/strong><\/em>, <strong>T<em>he Mandalorian<\/em><\/strong>, and <em><strong>Rogue One<\/strong><\/em>&#8211;that earned the studio more than $5 billion in ticket sales worldwide. But her tenure was also marked by controversy. She earned the displeasure of some diehard fans for her efforts at diversifying the <em><strong>Star Wars<\/strong> <\/em>brand by making the films more appealing to women and minorities. As a result, she was often parodied on <em>South Park<\/em>, which claimed her formula was \u201cPut a chick in it! Make her lame and gay!\u201d<br \/><br \/>On Thursday, Disney\u2019s CEO Bob Iger lauded Kennedy\u2019s track record in these words: \u201cWhen we acquired Lucasfilm more than a decade ago, we knew we were bringing into the Disney family not only one of the most beloved and enduring storytelling universes ever created, but also a team of extraordinary talent led by a visionary filmmaker \u2014 someone who had been handpicked by George Lucas himself, no less.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/author\/edward-moran\/\">Check out other articles by Edward.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a9\u00a02015 &#8211; Lucasfilm After fourteen years, Kathleen Kennedy is stepping down as the president of Lucasfilm. She will be replaced by Dave Filoni, its chief creative officer, and by Lynwen Brennan, the head of business affairs and operations for the studio. Filoni, 51, will serve as president and Brennan,58, will be the co-president. Early in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":33150,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,20471],"tags":[9481,12812,17420,55,4248,2321,8928,2320,2669],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Kathleen Kennedy Steps Down as President of Lucasfilm | Cinema Daily US<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=33115\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kathleen Kennedy Steps Down as President of Lucasfilm | Cinema Daily US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a9\u00a02015 &#8211; Lucasfilm After fourteen years, Kathleen Kennedy is stepping down as the president of Lucasfilm. 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More recently he contributed film reviews to hosokinema.com and Movie Sleuth. His writings have appeared in publications as diverse as the Times Literary Supplement, Publishers Weekly, the Paris Review, and the Massachusetts Review. Moran also edited a memoir by Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Christine Choy. He served as literary advisor to her film Hyam Plutzik: American Poet, which was the keynote film in the American Perspectives series at the 2007 Zebra Poetry Film Festival in Berlin.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.cinemadailyus.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?author=3\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Kathleen Kennedy Steps Down as President of Lucasfilm | Cinema Daily US","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=33115","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Kathleen Kennedy Steps Down as President of Lucasfilm | Cinema Daily US","og_description":"\u00a9\u00a02015 &#8211; Lucasfilm After fourteen years, Kathleen Kennedy is stepping down as the president of Lucasfilm. 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