Kathleen Kennedy’s departure from Lucasfilm had been predicted so many times over the last several years that it was probably a forgone conclusion that it would come to pass. That day happened in January when it was confirmed that Kennedy was stepping down, with Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan replacing her as co-presidents. While transitions at the top can cause some amount of upheaval within an organization, Kennedy says the transition has been “seamless,” and she explained why.While Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan may have only recently taken the reins at Lucasfilm, Kennedy tells Variety she’s been working with both of them and mentoring them for years. Based on her comments, It sounds like she’s been preparing both co-presidents to take on these roles for quite some time. Kennedy said…
It didn’t just happen six months ago. I spent 10 years talking Dave into gradually stepping into live action. He had so much experience in animation. He’s so knowledgeable about Star Wars and loves it so much, it’s really been a 10-year mentoring process for both of them. Lynwen came out of Industrial Light & Magic. She was my GM the entire time. I would argue that the transition has been really pretty seamless.
What's particularly interesting is that Kennedy says she’s the one who's pushed Filoni specifically to move into live-action work. That's in great part due to his knowledge and love of Star Wars.It will take time to see what Lucasfilm looks like under Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan's leadership, and it likely won’t be a carbon copy of the Kennedy years. Despite that, it's easy to imagine that working so closely with Kennedy for so many years taught both of the new co-presidents a great deal about how to lead the organization.
In the past, Filoni has talked about how much he's learned from Kennedy. George Lucas handpicked Kennedy to run Lucasfilm after his departure (and he also forged a strong bond with Filoni as they crafted Star Wars: The Clone Wars). Kennedy’s track record as a producer is unparalleled. In this case, she believes she’s produced two people perfectly capable of taking over.The decision to bring in two people as co-presidents shows that replacing Kathleen Kennedy is no small task. It would appear that the powers that be felt that the responsibilities involved were diverse enough that one person wouldn’t be able to do the job justice alone. Lucasfilm’s parent company, Disney, recently found itself in a similar situation. While Josh D’Amaro was named CEO, Disney Studios co-head Dana Walden was also promoted to President and the newly created position of Chief Creative Officer.Many took issue with Kathleen Kennedy’s tenure at Lucasfilm and celebrated her departure. If the production company does “improve” under the new leads, that will certainly be a good thing, but those happy fans may still need to thank Kennedy, at least a little.
