Kathleen Kennedy Admits to “A Bit of Relief” in Stepping Down From Lucasfilm After 14 Years

Kathleen Kennedy admitted to feeling “a bit of relief” after stepping down from Lucasfilm earlier in 2026 following 14 years at the helm of one of the biggest American film franchises.

The longtime producer reflected on the end of her leadership tenure in the Star Wars universe during a Wednesday night interview devoted to her career at Bloomberg’s annual Screentime event in Los Angeles. Asked if she felt “bittersweet“ about leaving Lucasfilm, Kennedy said no. “I suppose there’s a bit of relief. These jobs are not easy and stepping into something like that that George [Lucas] had created was an incredible challenge.”

She recalled asking Star Wars creator Lucas, after he handpicked her as his successor at the company, if he had any material she should look at for direction on storytelling. At the time, Kennedy was a longtime creative collaborator or Steven Spielberg, having produced Jurassic Park, Lincoln and Munich, and had produced other major titles like Back to the Future, Twisters and Gremlins.

“He [Lucas] said, ‘No, no, it’s all here,’” she said, pointing to her head. “I said, okay, well that’s going to be interesting to try and mine that.” (She added that she received “a couple of paragraphs” with story ideas, but no story treatments.)

Kennedy’s tenure at Lucasfilm saw its moments of fan outrage in certain corners (the response to The Acolyte was particularly vicious) and praise (Andor), with Kennedy the face of the brand during both its peaks and valleys. And interviewer Brad Stone, the editor of Bloomberg Businessweek, was quick to ask her about the challenges of satisfying a broad audience including the diehard Star Wars fans.

“Well, I think that that’s the challenge that all franchises [face], certainly something that’s been around now for 50 years. You’ve got people where this means a lot to them,” she said. “But at the same time, the challenge is to try to create something new, something original. So finding that balance is really the toughest thing.”

Stone said certain audiences felt Kennedy listened too much to certain fans. Did she learn anything from that experience? Kennedy maintained that she needed to pay attention to fans “without making that be a referendum,” but also to support artists with clear visions for stories within the Star Wars galaxy.

Her proudest accomplishments in the job, she added, were relaunching the film franchise with 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens and rolling out the Disney+ series Andor and The Mandalorian. She didn’t get specific, meanwhile, when asked about any regrets or potential do-overs. “I mean, I don’t think you can do anything in terms of the movie business where every single thing is going to be a perfect hit,” she said. “I think you learn things, I always like learning things from the movies that we do, the postmortems we do on what worked, what didn‘t. But I’m always proud of the work that’s been done.”

She also briefly addressed her removal of directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller from the film Solo in 2017 over creative differences. Asked about what it was like to be an executive charged with dismissing certain people rather than just supporting filmmakers, Kennedy said, “Well, that really only happened once, thank god.” (As The Hollywood Reporter reported at the time, Kennedy also sidelined director Gareth Edwards during the filming of 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story with Tony Gilroy brought in to finish the project alongside Edwards.)

“I wasn’t required to do that. There are many complicated situations that develop that certainly reach a point where you have to make a difficult decision like that,” she added. “Certainly my track record shows that I’ve worked with a lot of different directors, I’ve made many kinds of movies, and I’ve never been in a situation like that.”

Kennedy joined Lucasfilm in 2012 just before Disney bought the company for $4.05 billion that year. Kennedy pointed out that the purchase came with “an enormous expectation” from the studio. Still, she was adamant that the Disney acquisition was worth it. “Oh, yeah, I think there’s no question,” she said. “And I think Star Wars was a perfect acquisition for Disney and it’s what George wanted. There was no other company he wanted to sell the franchise to other than Disney.”

Now, longtime Star Wars creative Dave Filoni and executive Lynwen Brennan are leading Lucasfilm. And Kennedy is returning to independent producing with the company she shares with her husband, the veteran filmmaker and producer Frank Marshall. She’s not entirely leaving the Star Wars universe, either, as she’s producing the upcoming Ryan Gosling Star Wars: Starfighter movie directed by Shawn Levy.

As she faces the brave new world of indie producing in 2026, like a lot of people, Kennedy’s worried about the prospect of the merger of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery. “I think we’re all worried about that. To have a studio disappear and fewer movies get made, fewer content gets made,” she told Stone on Wednesday. “The ability for the studios to be able to scale the work that many of us do. I think that’s the biggest worry. We’ll see,” she said. “If it really is 30 movies a year, we’ll see.”

Amid the corporate consolidation and the further incorporation of AI into Hollywood’s workflow, she’s spent the last few months trying to figure out where the industry is headed. “I think it’s just absolutely extraordinary what is going on right now. So rather than form any real opinion or judgment about it, I’m just trying to absorb and meet as many people who are involved in the new technology,” she said.

She added, nodding to the readjustment following her time at Lucasfilm, “I’m also trying to get reacquainted with people that I’d lost track of. Because you get in a bit of a bubble when you’re doing something like Star Wars.”