Kathleen Kennedy Has Re-Upped Her Lucasfilm Contract For Three More Years
After her last contract with Lucasfilm expired in the past few weeks, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy has quickly opted to commit to another three years as the head of the company.
Matthew Belloni’s latest op-ed for Puck Newsletter casually revealed that Kathleen Kennedy would be extending her tenure at Lucasfilm for another three years:
“Kennedy has a lot of good things happening at Lucasfilm, and I’m told she recently re-upped her deal for another three years.”
This matches her last re-up back in 2018, which extended her contract to 2021. The current deal will now keep Kathleen Kennedy in charge until at least 2024, at which point she’ll have to weigh out her options once again. While the theatrical side of the Star Wars franchise has run into setbacks, including a recent decision to delay production on Rogue Squadron to allow the script to receive the necessary amount of polish, things are moving relatively smoothly on Indiana Jones and the many television series that Lucasfilm are developing for streaming.
This move to re-up her contract is relatively unsurprising in the grand scheme of things, as aside from spearheading the revival of a film franchise that has averaged over a billion dollars per movie since she became the head of the company, Kathleen Kennedy has also given Disney one of their biggest streaming hits in The Mandalorian, which is one of the most popular originals on Disney Plus that carried the service in its first year. It was also fairly obvious that she’d stick around after 2021 considering she’s been involved with every Indiana Jones movie, and the fifth and final one is currently filming and won’t release until 2023. Disney CEO Bob Chapek previously stated that Kennedy will continue be involved with the company for years to come, and it is unlikely that she will be removed from her position or encouraged to leave with this in mind.
For those wondering about the validity of the contract extension, while Lucasfilm nor Disney have made public statements, Kennedy’s husband, movie executive Frank Marshall, retweeted a tweet about the news of her extension – though it would be nice for an official confirmation from the studio. We reached out to Lucasfilm for confirmation of the news and are awaiting a response.
Kennedy’s slate of movies include A Droid Story (a Disney Plus film), Rogue Squadron, several untitled Star Wars films that are being developed by Taika Waititi, J. D. Dillard, Rian Johnson, and Kevin Feige, the fifth Indiana Jones film, and Children of Blood and Bone. Her slate of shows for Disney Plus include the Star Wars series and miniseries The Mandalorian, The Bad Batch, The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor, Ahsoka, The Acolyte, Lando, and Rangers of the New Republic (currently not in active development), along with a television sequel to the cult classic fantasy film Willow.
Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.
