Veteran movie producer Kathleen Kennedy became president of Lucasfilm in 2012, around the time Disney bought the company. She was in the big chair during the Star Wars revival that kicked off in 2015 with The Force Awakens. That movie went over really well, but follow-ups The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker were far more controversial. There have also been ups and downs on the TV side of things, with The Mandalorian and Andor becoming hits while The Book of Boba Fett and The Acolyte quietly dying in embarrassment.
Fans have a lot of opinions of Kennedy, but she's stuck it out for over a decade and made her mark. According to The Hollywood Reporter, she's one of several high-profile executives expected to step down in the near future. But who replaces her?
Per THR, the current hope is to replace Kennedy with two people who would act as co-heads: Carrie Beck, who also joined Lucasfilm in 2012; and Dave Filoni, who has been the main driving force behind the creative direction of Star Wars since even before the Disney takeover. He really started making his mark on the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which began in 2008. He continued with Star Wars Rebels and has worked on shows like The Mandalorian and Ahsoka. He also has a big hand in The Mandalorian & Grogu, which is currently on track to come out in theaters on May 22, 2026; if it hits that target, it'll be the first Star Wars movie to drop in six years.
This isn't an absolute sure thing, as there can always be surprises in a corporate succession. There are concerns with Filoni and Beck. Neither of them have much experience on the film side of things, although The Mandalorian & Grogu will at least get Filoni wet behind the ears. And one Disney insider brought up an issue I've had with some of Filoni's projects: he tends to lean hard into granular Star Wars mythology, especially the stuff he came up with. I don't speak for everything, but my favorite season of The Mandalorian was the first, when Mando and Baby Yoda went on standalone adventures. Once the second started bringing in characters from The Clone Wars like Ahsoka Tano, I started to lose interest. As the insider put it, “He’s not the Andor guy, he’s the Ahsoka guy.”
Still, I feel like Filoni has earned a chance to be the man in charge of Star Wars, alongside Beck. Disney CEO Bob Iger is also expected to step down...again; he already left in 2020, picking Bob Chapek to replace him. Then Chapek did a terrible job and Iger returned to the head role in 2022. The redo is coming. Executives queue up to replace Iger include parks head Josh D’Amaro, ESPN exec Jimmy Pitaro, and entertainment executives Dana Walden and Alan Bergman.
There is a transfer of authority happening in many industries across the country, not just in Hollywood. Last year, 2,221 CEOs stepped down, the highest amount since 2002. What will the next generation do with power once they have it? Strap in.
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