Filoni named president of 'Star Wars' studio Lucasfilm as Kennedy exits

Dave Filoni, a protege of "Star Wars" creator George Lucas and a creative force behind hit streaming TV series "The Mandalorian," was named president of Walt Disney-owned Lucasfilm on Thursday.

Current Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy will step down from the role this week and work as a full-time producer, Disney said in a statement.

Filoni, 51, will now steer one of the highest-grossing movie franchises in history as well as live-action and animated TV shows. He will work alongside co-president Lynwen Brennan, who runs the studio's business affairs and operations.

Disney CEO Bob Iger praised Kennedy's "leadership, her vision, and her stewardship” of the studio.

The 72-year-old Kennedy, who has run Lucasfilm since Disney bought it in 2012, oversaw three blockbuster sequels to the original Star Wars trilogy and the successful spinoff Rogue One.

Solo, a 2018 film that introduced a new actor as the smuggler made famous by Harrison Ford, flopped in theatres. That prompted concerns that audiences were growing fatigued with the beloved franchise.

"'Solo' was a little disappointing to us," Iger said in 2023. "It gave us pause just to think maybe the cadence was a little too aggressive. And so, we decided to pull back a bit."

Disney put the Star Wars movies on hiatus in 2019 to focus on live-action TV series, including The Mandalorian starring Pedro Pascal and introducing the popular character Baby Yoda. The company scrapped planned Star Wars films from directors Patty Jenkins and Rian Johnson as Kennedy worked to reset the film strategy.

Filoni, meanwhile, oversaw many popular and acclaimed TV series including The Mandalorian and Ahsoka.

Both Kennedy and Filoni worked with Lucas, the creator of the original Star Wars film series that debuted in 1977. The franchise, about a group of rebels in a galaxy far, far away, has brought in more than $10.3 billion at global box office receipts, according to Comscore.

Lucas hand-picked Kennedy as his successor to lead Lucasfilm. She co-founded Amblin Entertainment with Steven Spielberg and Frank Marshall and helped produce classic movies including E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park and Schindler's List.

The five Star Wars films Kennedy oversaw brought in a combined $5.9 billion. The most successful, 2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens, surpassed $2 billion in worldwide ticket sales.

Kennedy called it a privilege to work at Lucasfilm, adding, "I'm deeply proud of what we’ve accomplished together."

Lucasfilm expanded into producing live-action streaming TV series under Kennedy, including Filoni's The Mandalorian, which debuted with the launch of the Disney+ streaming service in 2019. Other series included Ahsoka, another Filoni project, and Andor.

The company also added Star Wars-themed lands at Walt Disney World in Florida and at Disneyland in California.

Daniel Loria, editorial director of Boxoffice Media, said Kennedy took on "an impossible task" of following Lucas, and delivered the platform-defining Mandalorian for Disney+.

She also "landed the plane" with Rogue One, Loria said, after rounds of rewrites and re-shoots.

Lucas hired Filoni in 2005 to help build a Star Wars animation studio. Often spotted at Hollywood premieres and fan events wearing a cowboy hat, Filoni helped create the animated TV series The Clone Wars.

The Mandalorian will head to the big screen in May in a film co-written by Filoni called The Mandalorian and Grogu. The movie Star Wars: Starfighter, featuring Ryan Gosling, is scheduled to reach cinemas in May 2027. Kennedy will continue to work as a producer of those films.

Daisy Ridley, star of the sequel trilogy that began in 2015, also has said she is returning to a new Star Wars project.