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When It Comes to Star Wars, There's Just One Thing We Need From Lucasfilm's New Presidents
In case you missed the news, there’s a seismic shift going on at Lucasfilm right now. Kathleen Kennedy is stepping down as President of Lucasfilm after 14 years. She’ll be replaced by two executives in Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan, both longtime Lucasfilm veterans.
This is certainly a huge deal for Star Wars fans. Kennedy has been steering the starship since Disney first acquired Lucasfilm in 2012, and she’s been in charge through a new era of films and the expansion into live-action streaming shows. What does it mean for the future of Star Wars? It’s a little early to say, but we know one thing that needs to change immediately - Lucasfilm needs to stop announcing new Star Wars movies and start committing to actually making them a reality. Star Wars needs to find a clear road map again after years of chaos and misdirection.
The Rise and Fall of Star Wars Under Kathleen Kennedy
There can be no denying that Kennedy’s tenure as President of Lucasfilm was marked by some major successes. She took the reins of a franchise whose biggest days many assumed were behind it, following the conclusion of George Lucas’ Prequel Trilogy. Instead, Kennedy helped pave the way for a completely new era of Star Wars movies that expanded the Skywalker Saga decades into the future.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens was an unmitigated success, shattering box office records and appealing to a huge swath of moviegoers. The entire Sequel Trilogy remains one of the highest-grossing series of all time. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story showed the potential in projects that venture away from the Skywalker clan. And perhaps most notably, Kennedy’s Lucasfilm finally proved that Star Wars can work in a live-action TV format, something even Lucas was hard-pressed to accomplish. The Mandalorian spawned a whole new wave of live-action shows, including the critical darling that is Star Wars: Andor.
But for all those successes, Kennedy’s tenure became increasingly marred as time went on. The Sequel Trilogy may have been largely successful from a financial standpoint, but good luck finding a Star Wars fan who actually likes all three movies. The lack of a coherent, overarching direction for the trilogy and the diminishing returns at the box office speak for themselves. 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story underwhelmed critically and commercially, with even Kennedy herself labeling it as one of her regrets with the franchise. And as 2026 dawns, it’s now been over six years since a new Star Wars film has hit theaters (though that’ll finally change this year).
It hasn’t been entirely rosy on the streaming front either. The initial fervor over The Mandalorian has cooled in light of the more divisive Season 3, and Lucasfilm seems to be cutting back on new live-action streaming shows just as it’s become increasingly cautious on the theatrical front. The Acolyte has the dubious distinction of being the first Star Wars series to be canceled due to low ratings. Ten years ago, who would have imagined there wouldn’t be an automatic, built-in audience for a live-action Star Wars show?
It’s painfully clear that there’s been a waning of enthusiasm surrounding the Star Wars franchise in recent years. Certainly, not all of the blame can be laid at Kennedy’s feet. But perhaps the great, defining flaw of the Kennedy era is that Lucasfilm doesn’t seem to quite know how to respond to this lack of Star Wars enthusiasm.
It’s become a running joke over the years that Lucasfilm is very fond of announcing new Star Wars movies and then never getting around to actually making them. At various points, we were supposed to get a Rian Johnson-helmed trilogy, an Old Republic series from Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss, and even a movie from Marvel bigwig Kevin Feige. All of those projects are dead now. Then there are the many announced projects that have fallen into quiet limbo, like James Mangold’s Dawn of the Jedi, Taika Waititi’s movie, Donald Glover’s Lando movie, and the Rogue Squadron movie. And that doesn’t even get into the numerous times directors have been replaced on the films that actually move forward (Phil Lord and Chris Miller on Solo, Colin Trevorrow on The Rise of Skywalker, etc.).
It’s gotten to the point where it’s impossible to feel excited about a new Star Wars announcement because the inevitable first question is always, “What’s the likelihood this thing actually comes out?” As you can see, the odds aren’t great. Even with projects that seem to be in active development, like Dave Filoni's Mando-Verse/New Republic Movie, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy's New Jedi Order Movie, and Simon Kinberg’s trilogy, it’s an open question as to whether those will see the light of day. Until the cameras start rolling and we have actual footage, it’s safer to assume the worst.
That sense of uncertainty and the constant pivoting have come to define Kathleen Kennedy’s Lucasfilm in recent years. And that’s exactly what needs to change as Filoni and Brennan take the helm.
It’s Time to Actually Make Star Wars Movies Again
At this point, we’re not particularly concerned about what direction Lucasfilm’s new masters take the Star Wars franchise. What matters is that they have a direction at all. Where is the future of this venerable but troubled franchise? Is it focusing on new movies set after the events of the Sequel Trilogy? Great. Is it fleshing out the Old Republic era in the Disney timeline? Fantastic. Is it more Mando-Verse/New Republic content? Fine.
Whatever Filoni and Brennan see as the future of the franchise, they need to develop a clear plan for Star Wars and commit to it. Fans have been subjected to too many false starts and announcements that don’t pan out. That’s where some of the waning enthusiasm around Star Wars is coming from. Again, it’s really hard to feel excited about any of these projects when we have no idea if they’re going to materialize.
As noted above, it’s been six years since we got a new Star Wars movie. And while there are currently two projects that have actually finished production and have release dates, if Lucasfilm doesn’t press forward, we may enter another multi-year lull without new films. That’s no way to energize a fanbase or convince anyone that the worst is behind us.
The best thing Filoni and Brennan can do to ring in this new era is make it clear that the days of indecision and waffling are over. Give fans status updates on the various movies and shows that have been announced. Make it clear which ones are being shelved and which are in active development. And maybe start being more conservative about which projects you formally announce. It’s no longer enough to hear that [insert writer here] is attached to a Star Wars movie. If it’s not in active development with a good sense of momentum, Star Wars fans really don’t want to hear about it.
The Filoni/Brennan news has obvious similarities to Warner Bros.’ decision to install James Gunn and Peter Safran as co-CEOs of DC Studios in 2023. Here, too, you have two executives sharing power. One is more focused on the creative side of things, while the other handles the business end. That approach certainly seems to have worked out well enough for DC Studios so far. And we can only hope that Filoni is as prolific on the writing/directing front as Gunn has been with Creature Commandos, Superman, Peacemaker, and Man of Tomorrow.
But the thing about Gunn and Safran’s DCU is that the two came out swinging with a clear plan in place from the beginning. When the DC Studios shake-up was announced, Gunn and Safran immediately revealed the “DCU Chapter One: Gods and Monsters.” They made it clear from the start that they had a road map in place and an overarching story direction in mind. Yes, some of those originally announced projects have fallen by the wayside, but that’s inevitable in this business. (Indeed, Gunn has been quite open on social media and elsewhere about the status of such projects.) What matters is that Gunn has a clear idea of the larger story he’s trying to tell with the DCU, and every act has been geared toward furthering that storyline.
This is exactly what we’d love to see from Filoni and Brennan. Not every Star Wars project needs to be part of the same storyline. The timeline is vast enough that we can and should be seeing projects set in many different eras and with many different characters. But we need confirmation that the new Lucasfilm Presidents have a road map in mind for Star Wars. The days of announcing new movies and quietly shelving them need to come to an end. That’s the first step toward reinvigorating the franchise and recapturing the excitement that was so palpable in those early years of Kennedy’s tenure. Forget Spider-Man. Star Wars needs a Brand New Day.
What do you think about this massive Star Wars shake-up? Will having a clear road map in place help get you jazzed about Star Wars again? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
And if you need help refreshing your memory on all the current Star Wars projects, here’s every Star Wars movie and show in development.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.
