Kathleen Kennedy, the producer responsible for the revival of the Star Wars cinematic universe these past three years, has signed a three-year extension of her deal to run LucasFilm, according to The Hollywood Reporter. That’s good news for fans of the new Star Wars movies, and bad news for fans who think Kennedy and director Rian Johnson ruined their childhoods and spat full in their faces by making The Last Jedi, although they’ll plan on seeing it a few more times just to be sure.
Anyway, Kennedy will be involved with 2019’s Star Wars: Episode IX, as well as the very expensive live-action Star Wars TV series marshaled by Iron Man director by Jon Favreau, to debut on Disney’s as-yet unnamed streaming service sometime next year. It also means Kennedy will oversee the scaling back of Star Wars movies, which Disney CEO Bob Iger announced following the box office disappointment Solo: A Star Wars Story.
Still, Disney has plenty of reason to be happy with Kennedy’s work. Star Wars: The Force Awakens made just over $2 billion worldwide, The Last Jedi made $1.3 billion, and Rogue One raked in just over $1 billion. She’s earned her keep, although it hasn’t all been smooth sailing. Kennedy has had to fire a few directors along the way, including Chris Lord and Philip Miller from Solo. She replaced them with Ron Howard. Kennedy also brought in Tony Gilroy to do heavy reshoots on Rogue One, although original director Gareth Edwards retained the directing credit. Finally, on Episode IX, she canned Colin Trevorrow and replaced him with The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams.
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Episode IX is planned as the last of the “chapter” movies, meaning there won’t be a Star Wars: Episode X…for now. But Disney has plenty in the pipeline, including a potential trilogy from Rian Johnson and Star Wars movies from Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss, although those deals could be in flux since Disney announced they were scaling things back.
And amidst all that Star Wars hubbub, Kennedy is also overseeing production of a new Indiana Jones film directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Harrison Ford.
As long as we’re talking about Star Wars stuff, fansite Making Star Wars reports that shooting on Jon Favreau’s Star Wars show begins next week! They even have behind-the-scenes images, if you dare look.
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