Kathleen Kennedy Says “I’m Not Retiring”

Following a busy week of trade reports and plenty of online speculation about Lucasfilm chief Kathleen Kennedy and her potential retirement, Kennedy herself has finally spoken publicly about what’s going on.

The big takeaway? She’s not going anywhere anytime soon. Deadline sat down with Kennedy to discuss the chatter and makes it quite clear right from the start she’s not retiring:

“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.”

So was all the talk bull? Not entirely. She explains that she has been talking for some time with both Bob Iger and Alan Horn about “what eventual succession might look like”. She says:

“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 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.”

While the media coverage has been utter chaos, Kennedy says at Lucasfilm there has “never been any chaos because we know exactly what the plan is”. So when can we actually expect to hear something?

“We’ll probably make an announcement months or a year out, and I have every intention of sticking around to help that person be successful. I’m already producing the Mandalorian movie, and Shawn Levy’s is after that.”

She also spoke about where things are with the current slate of “Star Wars” projects. First up, the Simon Kinberg-penned new trilogy of films: “We’re absolutely rolling fast and furiously. That has gone exceptionally well, and he’s literally going to script as we speak. We’ll see something probably around June… This is the next iteration, the new saga that moves us into the future.”

She also spoke about the film coming from “Deadpool & Wolverine” director Shawn Levy: “Shawn’s is a standalone Star Wars story that’ll take place post-9 [Rise of Skywalker], maybe five or six years out.”

As for James Mangold’s film, she says: “he’s working on this script right now… he got delayed a bit because of the Dylan movie and the awards season.” She also indicates Taika Waititi is working with a new writer on his project.

She was asked how many projects they have in development that she feels confident will be made, she says: “To play it safe, I’d say three or four right at the moment.”

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