It's that time of the year again. A rumor begins circulating that Kathleen Kennedy is preparing to step down as head of Lucasfilm, and everyone gets excited. Lo! And behold! It's actually true this time.
Kennedy is indeed putting down the crown forged by George Lucas that never quite fit, and there's much rejoicing to be had. I, too, am happy at the news, but I'd warn my fellow geeks not to get too excited. In her place is stepping in Dave Filoni to handle the creative side of things, and Lynwen Brennan will be handling the business side. I wish I had faith in Filoni, but any goodwill he had with Star Wars fans for the creation of The Clone Wars was dissolved under Kennedy.
If you had hope that he'd actually be a man who is going to respect the original Star Wars, I'll give you Sam Witwer (Starkiller/Darth Maul) discussing Filoni's philosophy about storytelling consistency.
Dave Filoni doesn't care about the legacy of real Lucasfilm and its mission to maintain lore.
— United Spacers Alliance (@AirlockOpen) January 16, 2026
Campfires. 😐 pic.twitter.com/t07EG8w8sh
I'm also positive Kennedy will stay on in an "advisory" or "consultant" capacity, so I doubt Filoni will have the control his title suggests he does. Kennedy's grip will be maintained from the shadows, like any good Sith.
Kennedy's failures as president of Lucasfilm are too many to discuss, and I'm pretty sure if I were to try to list them all, too many would be left out because there were so many I know I've forgotten more than a few. I'm sure there will be more than a few YouTubers and writers who will give Kennedy's career a solid post-mortem, but I do want to tackle one issue that I think could form the backbone of all of her issues.
In the Deadline tome (it's so long, calling it an article feels weird), where they conducted her "exit interview," Deadline asked Kennedy about how she no doubt "developed a thicker skin" from the criticisms she endured and what advice she was giving to newcomers who worked under her. It's here that she says pretty much the only thing you need to read throughout the entire piece:
I’m honest, especially with the women that come into this space because they unfairly get targeted. I don’t try to sugarcoat it. And I emphasize that it’s a very small group of people, with loud megaphones. I truly do not believe that it’s the majority of the fans. And I think we’re also in this weird world of where bots can affect things. You have to develop a tough skin. That is exactly right. That’s what you have to do. You can’t make it go away.
The thing to take from this little snippet is that Kennedy was lying to herself.
It wasn't a "very small group of people with loud megaphones." It was a very large group of fans who made it very clear, both through their commentary and their wallets, that what Kennedy was doing was atrocious and changes needed to be made. Changes that Kennedy, in her hubris and socio-political adherence, refused to make.
She told us that the "force was female" and proceeded to make Star Wars an intersectional message delivery system. Nearly everything Lucasfilm produced, including Indiana Jones and Willow, was infected by this ideological messaging in one way or another.
If these were just a tiny minority, as Kennedy claimed, then she wouldn't have felt the need to consistently denounce them. Her underlings wouldn't have been accusing them of being bots or "manbabies." One of its actresses wouldn't have created a stupid music video about how angry she was at the hate The Acolyte got.
No, I'm not kidding.
Amandla Stenberg, the star of Star Wars: The Acolyte, decided to pull the racism card and "own the haters" by flailing around like a fish out of water gasping for air while singing about how oppressed she is.
— MasteroftheTDS (@MasteroftheTDS) June 20, 2024
This is what Star Wars is now. pic.twitter.com/p35XyJXCP2
Real Star Wars fans kept telling Kennedy over and over again that what she was doing was wrong, and she continued denying we had any point, calling us names, and dismissing us.
She was in continuous denial that the people lashing out at her ridiculous decisions were the Star Wars fan base.
And now Star Wars is dead, and that is Kathleen Kennedy's legacy.
