Star Wars Management Switch: Kennedy Checks Out, Franchise Still Out Of Balance

KEY POINTS

•Kathleen Kennedy is stepping down after over 13 years leading Lucasfilm, with Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan appointed as co-presidents.
•Since Disney's last Star Wars movie in 2019, the franchise has seen hits like The Mandalorian and misses that left fans divided.
•Filoni and Brennan must revive the franchise ahead of the 2026 release of 'The Mandalorian and Grogu' while avoiding 'superhero fatigue.'

After a 13-year reign helming Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy is stepping off the Millennium Falcon, leaving Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan as co-commanders of Star Wars operations. Filoni, the creative mastermind known as George Lucas’s understudy, and Brennan, the general manager with business skills, now face the impossible: revive a franchise that hasn’t seen a new film since 2019 and survived a dizzying spaghetti bowl of abandoned projects. The highest-grossing US Star Wars film was 2015's Force Awakens, but since then, hits like The Mandalorian compete with forgettable flops. The new 2026 movie, 'The Mandalorian and Grogu,' is supposedly one of 45 future films vying for fan attention—because nothing says quality like a slate the size of the Death Star. Box office experts warn of 'franchise fatigue,' cautioning against turning Star Wars into the next Marvel TV binge-decimation. As fans clutch their lightsabers, the galaxy waits to see if absence really will make its heart grow fonder—or just more confused.

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Kathleen Kennedy abandons starship Lucasfilm, leaving fans to wonder if Filoni and Brennan will save Star Wars or just add more lightsaber glitches to the legacy.

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