When one of the most decorated and accomplished producers in cinema history is your president – chosen personally by George Lucas, the man who made all of this happen in the first place – then the news that Kathleen Kennedy has extended her stay as Lucasfilm president for another three years surely should be seen as a good thing. With three billion dollar grossing movies in the books and the criminally underappreciated Solo freshly released on home video, her track record so far is first class.
The contract extension now sees Kennedy overseeing the next era of Star Wars and the return of Indiana Jones.
Sources say that the near future of Star Wars lies in television with Kennedy-led Lucasfilm planning on expanding the universe with new characters in that medium. The shows at this stage include a live-action series run by Jon Favreau (which is currently casting) and the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars, both of which will air on Disney’s untitled streaming service, which is set to launch in the second half of 2019. Meanwhile, another animated series, Star Wars Resistance, premieres this month on The Disney Channel.
Lucasfilm is also developing a new Indiana Jones movie, the fifth in a series starring Harrison Ford and directed by Spielberg, but that project recently saw its release date push from July 10, 2020, to July 9, 2021. Script issues were the cause. The last Jones movie, 2008’s The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, grossed $786 million worldwide, adjusted for inflation.