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Kathleen Kennedy’s Legacy: 5 Big Wins and 5 Head-Scratching Misses at Lucasfilm

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2026-01-29

9 min read

A tight, no-nonsense rundown of Kathleen Kennedy’s 14-year Lucasfilm legacy: five wins, five misses, and what Filoni + Lynwen Brennan must fix in 2026.

Hook: Why you should care (and why this isn't another hot-take list)

Too many thinkpieces already flooded your feed the second Kathleen Kennedy announced she was stepping down after 14 years at Lucasfilm. You want the essentials: what actually worked, what flat-out failed, and what the new Dave Filoni + Lynwen Brennan era needs to fix first. Here's a tight, no-nonsense rundown of Kathleen Kennedy's Lucasfilm legacy — five clear wins and five head-scratching misses, with fast takes on box office, TV, fan backlash, and the projects that never landed (yes, including that noticeably absent Rey film mention).

Executive summary — the inverted pyramid

Short version: Kennedy kept Star Wars alive as a global brand, pivoted the franchise to a streaming-first model that produced creative highs, and shepherded an army of new talent. But years of stop-start movie plans, a few big flops, and some missteps in fan and talent management left the galaxy fractured by 2026. The baton now goes to Dave Filoni (creative) and Lynwen Brennan (business) — a split that signals a clear lesson: creative stewardship and corporate strategy need separate pilots.

"It has been a true privilege to spend more than a decade working alongside the extraordinary talent at Lucasfilm." — Kathleen Kennedy, exit statement (late 2025)

5 Big Wins (what Kennedy gets right)

1. A box-office and cultural blast-off early on

When The Force Awakens landed in 2015 it was an immediate cultural reset — and a beast at the box office: roughly $2.07 billion worldwide. Under Kennedy the studio also scored with Rogue One (about $1.06 billion) and kept Star Wars a commercial juggernaut through the decade. Those early wins bought Lucasfilm time to experiment, and they re-established Star Wars as a tentpole worth billions to Disney.

2. The streaming pivot that revitalised storytelling

Everything changed when Kennedy leaned into Disney+ and bet on serialized storytelling. The Mandalorian, Andor, and subsequent shows turned Star Wars from blockbuster spectacle into layered, long-form drama. The Mandalorian arguably saved Disney+'s cultural launch; Andor became the franchise's critical benchmark — character-driven, smart, and unapologetically adult. By 2026, TV was not a consolation prize — it was the place where Star Wars matured.

3. Creating and elevating new creative stars

Kennedy made room for a new generation: Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, and smaller-name directors who reinvented the lore. Filoni's elevation to head creative in 2026 is a direct reflection of that internal developer ecosystem — Kennedy cultivated the people who could carry the canon forward. That long-term investment in creators is a durable asset for Lucasfilm; studios should think of talent pipelines the way modern employers think about micro-internships and pipelines that scale and mature.

4. Expanding Star Wars beyond films — parks, games, and merch

Under Kennedy, Star Wars became a multiplatform lifestyle brand. Galaxy’s Edge theme parks, new licensing deals, and ambitious gaming partnerships kept the IP front-of-mind between releases. Those revenue streams made the franchise more resilient against theatrical volatility — and they required new thinking about partnerships across the online gaming ecosystem and how AI & NFTs could extend game-driven experiences. On the retail side, limited drops and official bundles looked a lot like modern brand playbooks for micro‑bundles and micro‑subscriptions.

5. A push for diversity in voices and casting — imperfect but real

Kennedy put more women and international filmmakers in play, and she backed projects featuring diverse leads (Daisy Ridley’s Rey, Ahsoka’s focus on female heroes, etc.). It wasn’t flawless execution, but the intent shifted the franchise toward a broader representation than the pre-Disney era.

5 Head-Scratching Misses (where things went sideways)

1. Creative inconsistency across the sequel trilogy

One of the most enduring criticisms of Kennedy's run was the tonal whiplash between episodes. The Last Jedi (2017) split fandom and then The Rise of Skywalker (2019) tried to course-correct with mixed results. The result: a trilogy that sold for spectacle but left many fans and critics feeling story-cheated. That inconsistency exposed Lucasfilm’s lack of a long-term cohesive narrative plan for the films.

2. Box-office fizzles and market misreads (Solo, and the post-2019 slump)

Not every movie stuck the landing. Solo (2018) underperformed (~$392M worldwide) and signaled that not all Star Wars corners were audience magnets. After 2019, theatrical momentum slowed: a mixture of franchise fatigue, over-supply of content, and strategy confusion left big-screen Star Wars with diminishing returns.

3. Development hell and the long list of “almost” movies

Kennedy presided over a parade of announced projects that never arrived. The Rian Johnson trilogy fizzled, Taika Waititi's long-teased film stalled, Patty Jenkins' Rogue Squadron was shelved, and — notably — the standalone Rey movie that Kennedy unveiled in 2023 was omitted from her exit checklist in 2026. That omission raised eyebrows and suggested many projects were more hopeful headlines than production-ready films.

4. Mishandling fandom, talent, and PR crises

High-profile incidents — the online harassment that forced Kelly Marie Tran to step back after The Last Jedi, and Gina Carano's firing from The Mandalorian in 2021 — showed how precarious fan culture had become. Lucasfilm’s responses were sometimes reactive and uneven, feeding narratives of poor talent support and inconsistent stakeholder communication. The industry needs better digital PR and social search playbooks to manage these moments and preserve creator relationships.

5. Over-centralization and corporate headwinds

Disney’s broader streaming and corporate strategies often collided with creative timelines. Frequent leadership changes at Disney, pressure for immediate subscription growth, and a demand for relentless content output led to rushed announcements and, at times, creative interference. The result: a brand that sometimes felt driven more by quarterly KPIs than long-term storytelling.

Quick takes — the projects that never landed (including Rey)

Rey standalone: Announced with fanfare at Star Wars Celebration 2023 (Daisy Ridley + Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy), yet conspicuously absent from Kennedy’s exit project list in 2026. That silence suggests the project is either stalled, dramatically reworked, or quietly canceled.
Rian Johnson trilogy: Promised a bold new branch of the saga; never materialized — a cautionary tale about announcing creative arcs without solid pipelines.
Taika Waititi: Energetic announcements; slow execution. Taika’s name kept headlines alive but production never matched the hype.
Rogue Squadron: Patty Jenkins’ flight to the Star Wars universe was scrubbed after public delays — emblematic of project churn under Disney’s post-2019 strategy.
Other one-offs: Several passion projects were teased, then ad hoc delays meant Lucasfilm's slate looked fuller on paper than in practice.

How to judge this legacy objectively (yes, numbers matter)

Look at three metrics: box office flow (immediate revenues), long-form critical wins (TV awards and acclaim), and IP health (merch, parks, subscriptions). Kennedy's era scored high on two of these but underperformed on consistent theatrical storytelling. By 2026, critical acclaim for TV (Emmys, awards buzz) had outpaced blockbuster triumphs in pure cultural cachet.

What Dave Filoni + Lynwen Brennan inheriting the franchise actually means

The leadership split announced in early 2026 tells you where Lucasfilm is going. Filoni as creative president signals an attempt to centralize internal continuity and reward the serialized, creator-driven approach that proved successful on Disney+. Lynwen Brennan as co-president signals tighter business discipline — fewer mid-run edits and clearer release pipelines. If Kennedy’s era was broad experimentation, the new regime looks like consolidation and refocus, with more emphasis on building stable fan experiences (including experimental pop-ups and planned micro-activations).

Actionable takeaways — for fans, creators, and industry watchers

For fans (how to consume and influence intelligently)

Follow releases on the show-level, not the headline-level: TV shows currently drive the best storytelling in Star Wars. Prioritise bingeing series like Andor and The Mandalorian over speculating about every movie announcement.
Support creators directly: watch official releases on day one, stream legally, and buy official merch to signal where your interest (and money) should go. Think in terms of modern creator monetization — micro-subscriptions and direct support models work.
Avoid piling onto toxicity: harassment only worsens casting and creative retention. If you want better stories, back creators, not chaos.

For content creators and filmmakers

Pitch with a pipeline: studios are wary of announced-but-unproduced ideas. Offer a realistic roadmap (series run-length, writers’ room, budgets).
Embrace serialized arcs: Lucasfilm's recent wins came from shows that respected character arcs — studios are hungry for that expertise.
Protect your IP vision: insist on clear guardrails for worldbuilding to avoid mid-course corporate rewrites that dilute storytelling.

For studios and executives

Separate creative and business leadership. The Filoni/Brennan split is a model: let the creative lead shepherd lore while the business lead optimizes monetization.
Be honest about timelines. Announcing films before scripts and budget alignment erodes trust with fans and partners.
Invest in fandom health. Moderation, creator support, and proactive PR reduce the long-term damage of toxic online mobs — build formal community hubs and invest in digital PR systems.

Predictions & what to watch in 2026 (short, punchy forecast)

Television dominance persists — Filoni will prioritize serialized arcs and interconnectivity across shows to build a stable canon ecosystem.
Selective theatrical returns — big-screen Star Wars will come back, but only for projects with a clear creative pipeline and franchise value.
Rey project fate will be clarified — either official cancellation or retooling under Filoni’s stewardship; don’t expect a quiet release without a clear story plan.
Fewer scattershot announcements — Brennan’s business role should cut down on headline-only projects and push for planned, measurable fan activations like micro-events and mod markets.
Fan engagement programs — expect more official channels for community building to manage fandom energy constructively, and experimental monetization like tokenized fan experiences alongside curated pop-ups.

Final verdict — balanced, not hot or cold

Kathleen Kennedy’s 14-year run at Lucasfilm is a textbook of both stewardship and caution. She turned a legacy IP into a streaming-era powerhouse, incubated creators, and kept the brand commercially dominant. But the era was also marked by creative swings, numerous shelved projects (including the awkward silence around Rey at her exit), and recurring PR headaches.

Legacy is complicated. If you measure by raw revenue and brand footprint, Kennedy succeeded. If you measure by consistent, coherent narrative for the cinematic saga, she left a fragmented map. The next chapter — under Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan — gets to fix the roadmap. Whether they will stitch the wins into a durable long-term plan is the real story we’ll be watching in 2026.

Call-to-action — stay part of the story

Want updates as Filoni's era unfolds? Sign up for our weekly Star Wars briefing, follow our coverage of the Rey project's status, and tell us — in the comments or on socials — which of Kennedy’s wins or misses surprised you most. We read everything, and we’ll keep calling out what works and what doesn’t as this new chapter begins. If you enjoy live coverage and fan events, check out our live Q&A and podcasting guide for hosting watch parties and panels.

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Senior editor and content strategist. Writing about technology, design, and the future of digital media. Follow along for deep dives into the industry's moving parts.