Kathleen Kennedy Breaks Silence on Leaving Lucasfilm in New Statement

Lucasfilm’s leadership transition just became a lot more personal.

After Disney CEO Bob Iger offered an official corporate tribute, Kathleen Kennedy has now released her own statement regarding her exit from Lucasfilm — and it reads like exactly what it is: a goodbye letter to a studio she helped define for more than a decade.

It’s reflective, grateful, and quietly forward-looking.

Why this matters now

Kennedy stepping away isn’t just a behind-the-scenes reshuffle. It’s the closing of a chapter that shaped modern Star Wars — from the sequel trilogy to Disney+ to Lucasfilm’s biggest recent creative pivot: television.

That’s why her own words matter.

This isn’t press speculation or a quote filtered through Disney PR. It’s Kennedy directly framing her legacy — and setting the tone for what she intends to do next.

What Kathleen Kennedy said

Kennedy confirmed the personal weight behind the moment by pointing straight back to the beginning:

“When George Lucas asked me to take over Lucasfilm upon his retirement, I couldn’t have imagined what lay ahead.”

And then she focuses on what she wants the headline to be: the people.

“It has been a true privilege to spend more than a decade working alongside the extraordinary talent at Lucasfilm. Their creativity and dedication have been an inspiration, and I’m deeply proud of what we’ve accomplished together.”

But the most interesting line is the one that makes it clear she’s not leaving the industry — or even leaving Star Wars culture entirely:

“I’m excited to continue developing films and television with both longtime collaborators and fresh voices who represent the future of storytelling.”

The context: what Kennedy’s era actually meant for Star Wars

Kennedy’s tenure will always be debated. It’s Star Wars — that part is unavoidable.

But her Lucasfilm era was unquestionably one of transformation.

She oversaw a franchise that went from a dormant film legacy to a modern content machine:

blockbuster theatrical releases
streaming-first storytelling
major franchise expansion across games, publishing, and parks
a post-Skywalker Saga identity crisis — and the slow rebuild afterward

And whether fans loved every decision or not, one thing is clear: Star Wars did not stay frozen in time under her watch.

It moved. Sometimes unevenly. But it moved.

What her statement is really doing

There are two goals baked into Kennedy’s message.

First: close the loop on the George Lucas handoff.

She doesn’t just name-drop Lucas — she frames the transition as something personal and intentional. She was trusted with Lucasfilm at the moment Lucas stepped away, and she wants the public record to reflect that.

Second: confirm the exit is not an ending.

The final sentence isn’t sentimental. It’s strategic. She’s telling the industry (and the fanbase) that she’s still producing and still building projects — with both established collaborators and “fresh voices.”

That line almost reads like a thesis statement for where Lucasfilm (and Disney) want Star Wars to go next: keeping legacy creators, while actively widening the creative bench.

Why this matters to Star Wars fans

For fans, leadership shifts are never just business news.

They directly shape what stories get told — and what kind of Star Wars gets prioritized.

Kennedy’s statement doesn’t hint at any drama, and it doesn’t take shots. It’s focused on the studio itself, and the work.

But it does something else too: it makes her exit feel final in the cleanest way possible.

No vague “maybe I’ll return.” No messy ambiguity.

Just: thank you, we did great work, and I’m moving on to new development.

What This Really Signals

Kathleen Kennedy’s departure isn’t being framed as a correction.

It’s being framed as a handoff — a legacy exit after a long run.

And her own words suggest she wants her era remembered less as a collection of individual projects and more as a decade of building: rebuilding Star Wars into something modern, messy, ambitious, and constantly evolving.

Whatever comes next at Lucasfilm, it’s now officially the next chapter.

Not a footnote.

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