By George & Josh Bate
After years of speculation, a new report from Matt Belloni of Puck News claims that Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan will soon replace Kathleen Kennedy as Co-Presidents of Lucasfilm.
According to the report, Dave Filoni will lead all creative development at Lucasfilm, while Lynwen Brennan (the current president and general manager of Lucasfilm Business) will oversee the executive and business sides of the company.
This arrangement of two Co-Presidents is similar to that of DC Studios. James Gunn serves as the creative lead of the Warner Bros.-owned studio and Peter Safran is in charge of business development. Lucasfilm appears to be mirroring this set-up as the company restructures following Kennedy’s exit in the near future.
Currently, it is unclear exactly when Kathleen Kennedy will exit Lucasfilm, although rumblings in the media suggest it will be sooner rather than later. If The Mandalorian and Grogu is a financial and critical success when it hits theaters in May, Kennedy may wish to retire on a high note at that time.
Until then, Filoni has his hands full with a variety of upcoming Star Wars projects. Filoni recently wrapped production of Ahsoka Season 2 and is critical to the development of the next Star Wars movie The Mandalorian and Grogu. Filoni also has his hands on all things animation at Lucasfilm, including the upcoming Disney+ series Maul: Shadow Lord. If the report from Puck News is true, it will be interesting to see just how hands-on Filoni is in the development of upcoming Star Wars projects, or if he’ll take a step back to oversee things from a birds-eye view.
Some of our thoughts on the matter….
If the reports are true that Dave Filoni will succeed Kathleen Kennedy as President of Lucasfilm (alongside Lynwen Brennan), we couldn’t be happier. Filoni has evolved far beyond the apprentice of George Lucas to be an interesting storyteller and filmmaker in his own right. He is the biggest Star Wars fan there is and has his finger firmly on the pulse of what makes a compelling Star Wars story both narratively and stylistically. Every one of his projects feels like a love letter to a galaxy far, far away. And his willingness to integrate aspects from Legends/EU into canon is unrivaled by any other Lucasfilm creator.
Those lamenting the decision are overlooking the fact that he has played an integral creative role at Lucasfilm for years and has been vocally supportive of projects he’s not involved in that are very different from his own, including Andor, The Last Jedi, and The Acolyte. Filoni, like the most thoughtful of Star Wars fans, knows that the franchise is not one-dimensional – mystical stories of Force Gods can exist in the same universe as grounded and relevant political thrillers. As such, we predict he’ll be unafraid to commission a wide variety of Star Wars projects, beyond the ones he directly oversees.
With Lynwen Brennan taking over the business & executive side of things, Lucasfilm will seemingly mirror the structure of DC Studios is having 1 head to deal with the creative side of things and another head to deal with the business side of things. This will allow Filoni to go all-in on developing new Star Wars stories, while the company at a business level is in good hands with a reliable and trusted figure in Brennan.
In our eyes, this news was inevitable and foreshadows a really exciting and positive future for Star Wars and Lucasfilm. Can’t wait to see what the future holds.
Stay tuned to The HoloFiles and Star Wars Holocron for updates on the succession plans for Lucasfilm.