Earlier this week, Puck revealed that Lucasfilm’s president, Kathleen Kennedy, was looking to retire later this year. Kennedy took over the role in 2012 when George Lucas sold the studio to Disney.

The news of Kathleen’s retirement resulted in a surge of online excitement over her leaving Lucasfilm, as many Star Wars fans have been unhappy with how she’s been running Lucasfilm, as there have been many box office failures such as “Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny” and “Solo: A Star Wars Story”, plus there has been a lot of negaitve feedback to multiple Star Wars Disney+ shows like “The Acolyte” and “The Book Of Boba Fett”.

Kathleen is now 71 years old and she has been in show business for many decades, working as an executive producer and a producer on some of the biggest films of all time including “Jurassic Park”, “ET’, “Back To The Future”, “The Goonies”, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”, “Schindler’s List”, “Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom”, “Twister”, “The Sixth Sense” and many more.

However, following the news of her retirement, she took part in an interview with Deadline to try to put the rumours to rest, stating:

The truth is, and I want to just say loud and clear, I am not retiring. I will never retire from movies. I will die making movies. That is the first thing that’s important to say. I am not retiring. What’s happening at Lucasfilm is I have been talking for quite some time with both Bob and Alan about what eventual succession might look like. We have an amazing bench of people here, and we have every intention of making an announcement months or a year down the road. We are in lockstep as to what that’s going to be, and I am continuing. I’m producing the Mandalorian movie right now, and I’m also producing Shawn Levy’s movie, which is after that. So I’m continuing to stay at Lucasfilm and looking very thoughtfully with Bob and Alan as to who’s stepping in. So that is all underway, and we have every right to make that announcement when we want to make it.

She was directly asked if she would be stepping down as the leader of “Lucasfilm” later this year and if it was her decision to go, to which she replied:

We really don’t know at this stage. There’s so much going on, Mike. I don’t know. Me. It’s my decision. This is 100 percent my decision.

Throughout the interview, she also gave updates on many other Star Wars films that have been announced over the years from creators such as Taika Waititi, James Mangold, Shawn Levy and Simon Kinberg. Basically saying they are all busy working on other projects, and each project is currently still in the script stage.

Roger’s Take: With the news of her retirement breaking the internet, with many Star Wars fans celebrating her leaving like it was a scene from the end of “Return Of The Jedi”, it’s not a surprise to see Kathleen coming out publically to deny the news. She’s still got multiple projects scheduled to come out, including the second season of the Disney+ Original series, “Andor: A Star Wars Story”, and the new “Mandalorian & Grogu” movie, which hits cinemas next May.

Because of her long-standing work in Hollywood, I fully expect she will be given the opportunity to step down when she’s ready and to get a producing credit/role on some of the remaining projects, but ultimately, I do see her being replaced sooner rather than later. Star Wars is in a difficult situation because of her mismanagement of the franchise, where it doesn’t seem like there is any plan on where its going, which was evendant with the sequel trilogy and all these random Disney+ series in different time periods that just seem to be filling in the gaps around the three trilogies.

Her recent interview was all PR spin to try to cover up the fact that they probably don’t have a replacement lined up and that she still might have a while left in the role. More importantly, they want to announce it on her own terms.

Do you think Kathleen Kennedy will retire soon? Let me know on social media!

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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