Many Star Wars fans are of the belief that Kathleen Kennedy poses an even bigger threat to a galaxy far, far away than Palpatine himself, and she’s certainly hoping to enjoy the same sort of staying power as the franchise’s big bad, who pulled the strings on screen for over 40 years.
As the person in charge, Kennedy is inevitably going to be the first target for any backlash or scorn, and there’s been plenty of that during the Disney years. Things got off to a solid start when The Force Awakens and Rogue One combined to earn over $3 billion at the box office and were warmly received by fans and critics alike, but it hasn’t exactly been plain sailing since then.
The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker both did big business commercially, but split the fanbase right down the middle for a variety of reasons, while Solo bombing was the catalyst for the Anthology experiment to be abandoned entirely. Then there’s the alarmingly high turnover of filmmakers, with countless talents being hired and swiftly dismissed on Kennedy’s watch.
Over the last couple of years, we’ve heard rumors that Kevin Feige, Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni or even George Lucas could step into the breach and replace her as Lucasfilm president, but Disney CEO Bob Chapek has now issued a pretty firm denial of that, which you can check out below.
“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.”
Despite upsetting large swathes of Star Wars enthusiasts, the Disney era has still raked in close to $6 billion from theaters and launched the most popular TV show in the world with The Mandalorian, so it’s not as if Kathleen Kennedy has overseen a string of disasters that would move the Mouse House brass to replace her, as much as some fans would love to see it happen.