Kathleen Kennedy steps down as president of ‘Star – Business News
Kathleen Kennedy will step down from her position as president of “Star Wars” film producer Lucasfilm this week and change into a full-time producer, Walt Disney mentioned Thursday.
Disney has named Dave Filoni, a protégé of “Star Wars” creator George Lucas and the co-creator of “Star Wars” streaming TV collection “The Mandalorian,” president and chief artistic officer of Lucasfilm. He will work alongside co-president Lynwen Brennan, who runs the studio’s business operations.
Filoni, 51, will now steer one of the highest-grossing film franchises in historical past as nicely as live-action and animated TV reveals.
Kathleen Kennedy has run Lucasfilm since Disney purchased it in 2012. She will change into a full-time producer. REUTERS
The 72-year-old Kennedy, who has run Lucasfilm since Disney purchased it in 2012, oversaw three blockbuster sequels to the unique “Star Wars” trilogy and the profitable spinoff “Rogue One.”
“It has been a true privilege to spend more than a decade working alongside the extraordinary talent at Lucasfilm,” Kennedy mentioned in a assertion.
The 2018 movie “Solo,” which launched a new actor as the smuggler made well-known by Harrison Ford, flopped in theaters.
Disney put the “Star Wars” motion pictures on hiatus in 2019 to concentrate on live-action TV collection, together with “The Mandalorian” starring Pedro Pascal and the favored character Baby Yoda.
George Lucas hand-picked Kennedy as his successor to steer Lucasfilm. Getty Images for Disney
Disney scrapped deliberate “Star Wars” movies from administrators Patty Jenkins and Rian Johnson as Kennedy labored to reset the movie strategy.
Filoni, in the meantime, oversaw many common and acclaimed TV collection together with “The Mandalorian” and “Ahsoka.”
Both Kennedy and Filoni labored with Lucas, the creator of the unique “Star Wars” movie collection that debuted in 1977. The franchise, about a group of rebels in a galaxy far, distant, has introduced in more than $10.3 billion at international box workplace receipts, in keeping with Comscore.
Dave Filoni is a protégé of “Star Wars” creator George Lucas and the co-creator of “Star Wars” streaming TV collection “The Mandalorian. REUTERS
Lucas hand-picked Kennedy as his successor to steer Lucasfilm. The 5 movies she oversaw introduced in a mixed $5.9 billion. The most profitable, 2015’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” surpassed $2 billion in worldwide ticket gross sales.
Lucasfilm expanded into producing live-action streaming TV collection beneath Kennedy, together with Filoni’s “The Mandalorian,” which debuted with the launch of the Disney+ streaming service in 2019. Other collection included “Ahsoka” and “Andor.”
The company additionally added “Star Wars”-themed lands at Walt Disney World in Florida and at Disneyland in California.
Kennedy and Filoni at a fan conference final 12 months. AP
In 2005, Lucas employed Filoni to help construct a “Star Wars” animation studio. Filoni, typically noticed at Hollywood premieres and fan occasions sporting a cowboy hat, helped create the animated TV collection “The Clone Wars.”
“The Mandalorian” will head to the massive screen in May in a movie co-written by Filoni known as “The Mandalorian and Grogu.” The film “Star Wars: Starfighter,” that includes Ryan Gosling, is scheduled to succeed in cinemas in May 2027. Kennedy will proceed to work as a producer of these movies.
Daisy Ridley, star of the sequel trilogy that started in 2015, additionally has mentioned she is returning to a new “Star Wars” project.
