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May 29, 2024 · In a new interview with The New York Times for the upcoming “ Star Wars ” series “ The Acolyte ,” Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said she is aware that women in the space franchise are...
- Zack Sharf
Jun 14, 2024 · Kathleen Kennedy has been under fire from Star Wars fans for years, with many calling for her firing for “ruining” the Star Wars franchise and Lucasfilm Ltd. since its acquisition by The Walt...
- 3 min
- IGN spoke to Kennedy just moments after last week's big announcement.
- Every Hasbro Star Wars Figure Revealed at Celebration 2023
- The Acolyte: The Cast of the Disney+ Star Wars Prequel
By Alex Stedman
Posted: Apr 13, 2023 4:00 pm
Last week was a giant one for Star Wars, to say the least.
During the Star Wars Celebration in London, Lucasfilm and Disney announced not one, not two, but three new live-action Star Wars films, the first official confirmation of any upcoming Star Wars features following 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker. What’s more, the directors behind them are James Mangold, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (whose project will include the return of Daisy Ridley as Rey), and Dave Filoni, who’s arguably been the most influential voice in Star Wars TV series since The Clone Wars.
But TV, where Star Wars’ focus has been since the launch of Disney+, got its day in the spotlight too, with first looks of The Acolyte, Skeleton Crew, and Ahsoka shown to attendees of the convention, as well as updates from the casts and creatives behind The Mandalorian and Andor.
At the center of all of this is Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, who was the one to announce the three new movies on the ExCel London stage on Friday. Just moments after the big Lucasfilm Studio Showcase, Kennedy sat down for an exclusive interview with IGN to talk about her work with Filoni and Jon Favreau (you can read our exclusive sitdown with them here), the three new movies, her ambitions for the future of Star Wars, and a whole lot more.
So what point in Rey's life are we going to rejoin her?
Kathleen Kennedy: Well, we're 15 years out from Rise of Skywalker, so we're post-war, post-First Order, and the Jedi are in disarray, and there's a lot of discussion around who are the Jedi, what are they doing, what's the state of the galaxy? And she's attempting to rebuild the Jedi Order based on the books, based on what she promised Luke. So that's where we're going.
And you mentioned Luke, and I think he almost seemed like almost a cautionary tale [for the Jedi] in the most recent trilogy. Will we see any of that play with Rey at all?
Kathleen Kennedy: I don't know if we'll spend a lot of time in flashbacks or Force ghosts or things like that, but certainly the spirit of what he represents to her is going to be significant.
And as you mentioned, it's 15 years after the Rise of Skywalker. So the other two films, do you see them more as standalone movies?
Kathleen Kennedy: Oh yeah. When we say standalone now, a lot of the storytelling, as you can see in the work that we've been doing in television, we started as a standalone idea and then it's grown. And I think the potential of that could happen in these different eras of the timeline. But I don't want to make a commitment to that until we really get into it and see how it plays.
I was excited to see more of the Acolyte, which has been one of the more mysterious projects. But you said you've seen four episodes and you were blown away. What about them blew you away?
Kathleen Kennedy: Leslye, her storytelling. I was blown away by just the scale and the size. And as you could see from what you saw in the room, it's very compelling. She's doing some really original things and yet completely grounded in Star Wars.
And then you have Ahsoka, which is of course, taking such a beloved animation character and taking them into live action. Do you guys think that that's something you might do more of?
Kathleen Kennedy: I wouldn't do it without Dave. I mean, Dave created so much of what was in Clone Wars and Rebels, and that extension of that storytelling is something that's Dave's. And certainly working with him to try to evolve that into whether we do with live action, whether it's a series or whether we go into features, that's something we would do with him.
And you guys have really played with kind of intersecting these shows. You've had the Mandalorian and Boba Fett, and we had a Thrawn mention in Mandalorian just now. I mean, is that something you might play with more or do you think these are going to be more standalone projects?
Kathleen Kennedy: Well, that's really building toward what Dave's doing in the feature space. Very intentionally.
Apr 8, 2023 · After the “Ahsoka” panel at the Star Wars Celebration in London, Variety spoke with Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy about some of the franchise’s future installments.
May 30, 2024 · Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy says there’s a gender disparity in the “Star Wars” universe. In an interview with the New York Times on Wednesday about the latest installment in the ...
May 30, 2024 · Lucasfilm CEO Kathleen Kennedy has acknowledged the growing concerns among some Star Wars fans who are unhappy with the franchise's current direction.
Nov 19, 2019 · Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy discusses the challenges of moving the franchise forward, George Lucas' criticism, and much more
