Here it is, first-person, definitive confirmation that rumours of her demise were very premature indeed – or in her own words “It all has just been manufactured” – as Kathleen Kennedy speaks to Deadline ahead of accepting an award at the Oscar Wilde Awards alongside her husband Frank Marshall. She touches on the succession process, which is being carefully mapped out alongside Bob Iger and Alan Horn, the current state of play with Star Wars and the projects she’s working on, which looks like more than enough to keep her deeply involved for a number of years to come.
DEADLINE: This flurry of press coverage, it sounds like chaos. What’s the reality?
KENNEDY: Chaos? There has never been any chaos because we know exactly what the plan is. And we’ve been talking about it, as I said, nonstop for the last couple of years because for obvious reasons — I’m not going to be here forever. George asked me 13 years ago to step in, and now I’m looking at who’s going to replace me. And as I said, we have a bench of people internally to handle the business, the creative side. The job has grown also since I stepped in. There was no streaming, there weren’t a lot of the things that we’re involved in right now going on. So it has grown.
DEADLINE: How far down the road do you expect before a change gets made and then you go off and produce these two big Star Wars things?
KENNEDY: 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.
DEADLINE: I recall these same retirement predictions were rendered a while ago, and you reupped and here you are. What do you make of this fixation on your job status?
KENNEDY: I truly don’t know. And any discussion previously about me retiring or quitting or any of those things, that’s complete rumor mill because through all these reports, I have just continued doing my job and continuing my contract. Nothing unusual. It all has just been manufactured.
DEADLINE: The connotation is you’re being pushed aside, in need of being replaced, though that’s not what I’ve heard.
KENNEDY: Is absolutely not the case. It could not be further from the truth. And everything that we do inside of Lucasfilm is in lockstep and in communication with Disney. We all know what’s going on. The communication has been completely collaborative as you would expect. This is a big piece of business for them, and they want to empower me to help them make that decision and that choice. I’m doing that.
Plenty to discuss about this and much more on the next episode of Making Tracks, which arrives next Tuesday after Brian and Paul dig into everything GFFA on Sunday’s LIVE episode of Good Morning Tatooine.
