Rumors concerning Kathleen Kennedy’s future at Lucasfilm have been circulating for several years now and on Tuesday Disney CEO Bob Chapek addressed her future moving forward.

When George Lucas was getting ready to sell Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012 Lucas named Kennedy as his successor. During her time at Lucasfilm Kennedy has overseen the expansion of Star Wars franchise with a new trilogy, spinoffs and television shows.

The galaxy far, far away seemed to get off to a good start with the release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker followed a year later with Rogue One, both extremely successful in box office returns. In 2017 Star Wars: The Last Jedi was released as the follow up to The Force Awakens and although it was well received by critics and enjoyed a healthy return at the box office the movie caused a divide amongst the fans.

The divide caused by The Last Jedi led fans to show their disapproval when Solo: A Star Wars Story was released as it became the lowest-growing movie of the entire franchise. The Rise of Skywalker was released in December of 2019 enjoying financial success earning just over a billion dollars but found little to no love with the critics.

During an investor’s call on Tuesday, Disney CEO Bob Chapek was asked very bluntly if Kathleen Kennedy was going to be replaced by Jon Favreau or Dave Filoni, who are both enjoying immense success on Disney Plus with The Mandalorian and upcoming shows like The Book of Boba Fett and Star Wars: Ahsoka.

Chapek answer to investors pretty much squashes those rumors, saying…

“We’ve been absolutely thrilled that we can have the kind of talent like Kathy Kennedy to direct Lucasfilm… We look forward to having Kathleen Kennedy running the Lucasfilm organization for many years to come.”

The news that Kennedy is not going anywhere anytime soon may not be the news some fans wish to hear. Yes, Kennedy has made some mistakes while at Lucasfilm. The biggest for me is her hiring of directors and not making sure that herself (Kennedy) and the directors are all 100% on same page before hiring them.

I can understand why some fans want to see Favreau and Filoni put in charge of Lucasfilm with the success of The Mandalorian they feel they have a better understanding of Star Wars. While I will agree both Favreau and Filoni due have an excellent grasp of Star Wars as story tellers The Mandalorian would not have gone past the idea stage if Kennedy herself had not of signed off on it and I think some fans do not realize that Favreau and Filoni do not have free reign at Lucasfilm they still have to answer to Kathleen Kennedy.

Categories: Star Wars

Tags: Bob Chapek, Dave Filoni, Disney CEO, Jon Favreau, Kathleen Kennedy, Lucasfilm, Movies