Kathleen Kennedy faced a simple question when she appeared at Bloomberg’s Screentime event in Los Angeles on September 30: how did it feel to leave the top job at Lucasfilm? She had spent nearly 14 years leading the company George Lucas handed over to her. With the leadership change already announced earlier this year, her answer offered a more personal look at what that role had involved.
“I’m Not Feeling Bittersweet”
Asked by interviewer Brad Stone whether stepping aside felt bittersweet, Kennedy answered directly: “No, I’m not feeling bittersweet.”
Then came the line that caught attention: “I suppose there’s a bit of relief.”
“These jobs are not easy,” she added during the Screentime interview. “And stepping into something like that that George had created was an incredible challenge.”
This was a reflection on a change that had already happened, not a fresh resignation announcement. Lucasfilm announced her departure from the presidency in January. Nor did Kennedy describe the relief as a rejection of Star Wars. Her explanation was about the difficulty of running the company behind it.
Kennedy’s exchange about leaving Lucasfilm begins at approximately 1:00:31 in Bloomberg’s Screentime opening-night interview.
The Challenge of Taking Over George Lucas’s Creation
Kennedy described a job that involved protecting an established world while finding room for new stories. Familiarity matters in a long-running franchise, but repeating what already exists cannot be the whole plan.
“The challenge is to try to create something new, something original,” she explained. “So finding that balance is really the toughest thing.”
She also recalled asking Lucas what material she should look at to understand where the next stories would go. In her telling, he replied, “No, no, it’s all here,” referring to the ideas in his head. Kennedy said she had received “a couple of paragraphs,” rather than story treatments.
That is her recollection of the material available to her, not proof that Lucas never developed sequel ideas or treatments. The point of her story was the challenge of carrying another creator’s world forward. She also stressed that Lucas had built a company full of experienced people whose knowledge could help, including Dave Filoni.
Her approach, as she described it, was to understand what people cared about while supporting storytellers with a strong point of view. Those are not always the same demand. A filmmaker needs room to make choices, while a studio has to consider how those choices fit a much larger body of work.
The Difficult Decisions Behind the Films
The conversation also turned to the harder side of being a studio executive: sometimes supporting a filmmaker gives way to making a difficult change.
Kennedy addressed the removal of Phil Lord and Chris Miller from Solo over creative differences. “Well, that really only happened once, thank god,” she said, before describing complicated situations that can reach a point where a tough decision becomes necessary.
That remark should not be taken as a complete account of every troubled production during her presidency. The director replacement on Solo was a specific case; other projects had their own changes and disagreements. Kennedy’s broader explanation was that Star Wars came with enormous expectations, both from its audience and from Disney.
When asked about accomplishments and possible do-overs, she highlighted The Force Awakens, Andor and The Mandalorian. She did not name a project she wished she could erase or remake.
“I don’t think you can do anything in terms of the movie business where every single thing is going to be a perfect hit,” she said. She described reviewing what worked and what did not, while remaining proud of the work that had been done.
So the interview was not an admission that she regretted taking the job. It was a more limited acknowledgment: leading Lucasfilm was demanding, and moving on from that responsibility brought some relief.
She Is Still Producing Star Wars
Leaving the presidency did not mean leaving filmmaking or cutting all ties with Lucasfilm.
The official leadership transition gave Dave Filoni the roles of President and Chief Creative Officer, with Lynwen Brennan serving as Co-President. Kennedy’s next step was a return to full-time producing.
That January announcement included her producing work on The Mandalorian and Grogu and Star Wars: Starfighter. By the September interview, her continuing Star Wars connection included Starfighter, directed by Shawn Levy and starring Ryan Gosling.
The distinction is straightforward. Running Lucasfilm means responsibility for the studio as a whole. Producing lets Kennedy return her attention to individual projects, including work beyond Star Wars, without carrying the same company-wide leadership role.