Kathleen Kennedy Speaks On Her Lucasfilm Plans — She Is Not Soon Retiring — & The Films That Will Keep Her In ‘Star Wars’ Orbit For Years To Come
deadline.comEXCLUSIVE: I thought I’d seen it all in trade journalism, but the piranha-like frenzy on Kathleen Kennedy and the successor speculation that followed Matt Belloni’s Puck report that Disney was putting her out to pasture is a new one on me.
Belloni for years has been beating on Kennedy like she owes him money, and this week he reported Kennedy was retiring. I recall he essentially did the same thing more than a year ago, and yet here she still is, producing The Mandalorian movie and prepping the Shawn Levy-directed film that Ryan Gosling is circling, as well as numerous other film and streaming projects with A-list participants.
Still, the trades followed with gusto, dishing speculative reporting on who might succeed Kennedy. The takeaway was chaos and that Kennedy was being pushed.
The reality is different and far more orderly. According to insiders, Kennedy has been working on a succession plan for a couple years, eyeing candidates from within in process with Bob Iger and Alan Bergman (that puts someone like Dave Filoni, who knows the universe inside out, in a strong position).
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