By In the wake of the report earlier this week about Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy potentially leaving her position towards the end of the year, plenty of speculation has quickly arisen in regards to who her potential successor might be.
CNN published its own report a few hours later saying “there’s nothing there right now” in regards to the retirement talk and any announcement would be made when “actual decisions are made”. That dismissal has done nothing to quell the speculation.
First up, The InSneider reports that even when Kennedy does exit the top job, she will likely still be “producing projects within the Star Wars universe for years to come.” Sneider compares it to how Amy Pascal left the top job at Sony Pictures and yet is still producing the “Spider-Man” movies.
Whereas Lucas handpicked Kennedy to take over Lucasfilm in 2012, Disney is making the call here and Kennedy won’t be easy to replace. Kennedy has decades of experience working on some of the most successful movies ever made, even before she got involved in the “Star Wars” universe.
Meanwhile, there are no real successors waiting in the wings according to THR who indicate one obvious issue is that the job is far more managerial in nature than creative – their source saying the creative aspects are only “about 10%” of the work – the rest is dealing with Disney, licensing and fans.
One possibility is for Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige to step into the job on his own as he’s shown he can handle the creative and the executive aspects of the job. Feige is currently focused on recalibrating Marvel after being stretched too thin due to the overly ambitious plans of Disney to bolster its Disney+ service.
Another possibility is an arrangement similar to what is happening at DC Studios where filmmaker James Gunn is paired with seasoned executive Peter Safran, allowing the former to focus on the creative while the latter focuses on the business and administrative aspects. In this case, people like”The Mandalorian” showrunners Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni could be paired up with an executive like 20th Century Fox’s former president of production Emma Watts.
Whoever is hired takes on a job that will see them face a lot of scrutiny and criticism from all sides, even as the franchise is at a low point with the financial and critical response to the assorted works proving rather mixed.
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