Kathleen Kennedy just rewrote one of the most argued-about chapters in Star Wars history.
Kennedy, who stepped down as Lucasfilm president in January, told Bloomberg Businessweek’s Brad Stone at Bloomberg Screentime in Los Angeles on September 30 what George Lucas actually handed over when she took the job in 2012.
‘No, No, It’s All Here’
Kennedy said she asked Lucas directly where the next stories were.
“So, George, the stories that we’re going to do next, is there anything I should look at? Should I have some sense?” she recalled asking.
“No, no, it’s all here,” Lucas told her.
“Okay, well, that’s going to be interesting to try to mine that,” Kennedy replied.
When Stone pushed back, noting Lucas had story treatments, Kennedy shrank the paper trail.
“We had a couple of paragraphs,” she said. “He didn’t really have story treatments.”
What Lucas did build, she said, was “an incredible company” full of “amazing people,” with “Dave being one of them.” That’s Dave Filoni, who now runs Lucasfilm alongside Lynwen Brennan.
‘I Had Three More Star Wars To Make’
Kennedy’s account lands ten days after Lucas reopened the subject himself.
In an extended interview with Norah O’Donnell for CBS Sunday Morning, timed to the opening of his Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles, Lucas said the museum cost him a Star Wars trilogy.
“When I did this, I decided to retire from making movies, which was a big deal because I had three more Star Wars to make,” Lucas said of the museum. “But I realized that I was running out of time, and I did want to make this museum.”
Kennedy, who attended the opening, said the museum “is like walking inside his mind.”
Asked how Lucas feels about Star Wars now, Kennedy said, “The whole time I was working there, he would just constantly remind me that he was retired. So, I think that’s where he is.”
Fans have fought over Lucas’ version of those movies for a decade.
Lucas said in 2015 that Disney decided not to use his sequel stories. His plans, revealed years later, involved Darth Maul and Darth Talon.
Bob Iger then wrote in his 2019 book that Lucas thought Disney “buying the story treatments was a tacit promise that we’d follow them,” and that he “was disappointed that his story was being discarded.”
Iger also wrote that Kennedy helped make that decision: “Kathy, J.J., Alan and I had discussed the direction in which the saga should go, and we all agreed that it wasn’t what George had outlined.”
Lucas says he had three more Star Wars to make. Iger’s book calls them story treatments. Kennedy calls them a couple of paragraphs.
No Do-Overs
Kennedy said stepping aside brought “a bit of relief” rather than anything bittersweet, because “these jobs are not easy.”
Asked what she’d change about her 14 years, Kennedy gave a flat answer: “Do-overs? No.”
“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.
On what she’s proudest of, Kennedy said, “I’m incredibly proud of the fact that we were able to create Force Awakens, for instance, which relaunched the franchise and started new storytelling.”
She also named Andor and The Mandalorian.
On listening to the fanbase, Kennedy said you pay attention to what people care about, but “it’s finding the balance of what it is the fans want without making that be a referendum,” while supporting talent with “a strong point of view.”
As for the famous weight of Star Wars expectations, Kennedy said “the expectation has been moderated, let’s put it that way.”
At the same event, Kennedy also opened up about Hollywood’s secret AI meetings, saying some special effects work will likely become automated.
The Next Trilogy Could Continue Her Story
Here’s where it gets interesting.
Last weekend, Jon Watts was revealed as the director of the first movie in Simon Kinberg’s new Star Wars trilogy, with the trades confirming the rumor and Deadline noting Disney hasn’t greenlit the films yet.
Deadline also reports the trilogy continues the Skywalker Saga, with Daisy Ridley said to be eyed to return as Rey.
That flips what Lucasfilm said in November 2024, when it shot down the Episodes 10 through 12 framing and said the movies would launch a new saga with new characters.
So the Rey claim stays a report for now.
If Deadline has it right, the first big movies of the post-Kennedy era pick up the story Kennedy started with The Force Awakens.
She was attached to produce the trilogy with Kinberg when the deal closed in November 2024.
Kennedy is also still producing Shawn Levy’s Star Wars: Starfighter, which Stone noted on stage.
The Ryan Gosling movie hits theaters May 28, 2027, with IMAX 70mm film prints for the 50th anniversary.
Kennedy says she has no do-overs. If Deadline is right, neither does Lucasfilm.
