Kathleen Kennedy Reportedly Stepping Down as Lucasfilm President!!

After more than a decade at the helm of Star Wars, Kathleen Kennedy is expected to step down as president of Lucasfilm at the end of 2025. Reports breaking today indicate that Kennedy, who has led the studio since Disney’s acquisition in 2012, plans to retire when her current contract expires. However, a source close to Kennedy has dismissed these claims as “pure speculation” and stated that no final decision has been made.

Kennedy was handpicked by George Lucas to co-chair Lucasfilm prior to Disney’s $4 billion acquisition, after which she was elevated to president. Her tenure has seen both significant successes and increasing challenges, making her one of the most polarizing figures in the world of Hollywood today. Kennedy‘s reign over Star Wars got off to a brilliant start when 2015’s The Force Awakens was met with critical acclaim as it grossed over $2 billion worldwide, and it also set the record for the highest domestic box office total in history at $936 million.

The next year, she was also in charge of overseeing Rogue One, which was once again met with waves of acclaim and grossed over $1 billion, a remarkable achievement for a film with entirely original characters outside of Darth Vader. And beyond the silver screen, Kennedy played a key role in expanding Star Wars into streaming with the launch of Disney+ series such as The Mandalorian, Andor, and Ahsoka, which have helped keep the franchise ticking over in the absence of new theatrical releases.

Kathleen Kennedy’s Hits and Misses

Despite those undoubted successes, there have been some bumps in the road too. The sequel trilogy suffered for a lack of cohesive storytelling and a narrative throughline, with The Last Jedi (2017) and The Rise of Skywalker (2019) dividing fans and critics — critics adored the former, and reviled the latter, whereas fans kind of hated both of them. The latter ultimately grossed just over $1 billion — still a strong showing, but nearly half of The Force Awakens’ total.

The franchise’s first major misstep came with Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), which became the first Star Wars film to lose money at the box office. That failure led to Lucasfilm canceling several planned standalone films and shifting its focus toward television. And it’s now been six years since Star Wars was in theaters. Several high-profile projects — including films from Patty Jenkins, Kevin Feige, Rian Johnson, and Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss — were either quietly shelved or outright canceled, while the only definite film we know is coming is The Mandalorian & Grogu, a feature film spin-off from Jon Favreau’s Disney+ series.