“There’s A Lot Of Anticipation That We Have To Live Up To”

Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy is making the most of Star Wars Celebration by revealing big news about the future of the Star Wars franchise. Since becoming president of the house George Lucas built in 2012, Kennedy has shepherded an impressive array of projects to completion, from the sequel trilogy to Andor. Before she was in charge of Lucasfilm, Kennedy was an incredibly accomplished film producer with credits including Jurassic Park, Twister, and The Sixth Sense.

Key to the next wave of Star Wars projects are the imminent Andor season 2, the 2026 film The Mandalorian & Grogu, Star Wars: New Jedi Order, and the just-announced Star Wars: Starfighter film from Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy. Also upcoming is Ahsoka season 2, in which Hayden Christensen is now confirmed to reprise his role as Anakin Skywalker. In the more distant future is an in-development Star Wars movie from Jojo Rabbit writer/director Taika Waititi, the continued existence of which has been a subject of much speculation.

ScreenRant’s Ash Crossan interviewed Kathleen Kennedy at Star Wars Celebration 2025. The Lucasfilm president talked Star Wars: Starfighter, teased The Mandalorian & Grogu, and discussed how the streaming model has allowed Lucasfilm to tell new and exciting Star Wars stories. Plus, Kennedy reflected on her own journey from film producer to studio executive.

Kathleen Kennedy Has Been Trying To Figure Out The Future Of Star Wars

“It’s Been A Huge Challenge To Figure Out … Where We Go”

ScreenRant spoke with Kathleen Kennedy shortly after new footage from The Mandalorian & Grogu was shown. The much-hyped movie is set to drop at a time some perceive to be rocky for Star Wars after the divisive reception of recent projects like The Acolyte. “I have to say I’m feeling relieved to a certain extent,” Kennedy said, “because there’s a lot of anticipation that we have to live up to. I think we certainly felt it in the room. People were really excited by what we were presenting.”

It’s a good thing for Kennedy, who admitted during the interview that “We’ve been working and talking for a long time about where Star Wars is going.” She continued to say that “The television streaming space offered us such a great opportunity to explore and experiment with new characters in storytelling–that’s where Mandalorian, obviously, came about–and then post [Episode IX] and the sequel movies and finishing what George had created, it’s been a huge challenge to figure out just exactly where we go. I think it’s now really gaining momentum.”

Clearly, The Mandalorian & Grogu has helped Kennedy feel confident in the direction she and the other creatives working at and with Lucasfilm have chosen. Kennedy also shared a fun story about having Alien star Sigourney Weaver on set for the upcoming film: “The first time she came on set and saw Grogu, she just melted. She couldn’t contain herself. She just thought it was the cutest creature, because she’s often worked with really scary creatures.”

Kennedy Explains The Choices Of Shawn Levy & Ryan Gosling For Star Wars: Starfighter

“[Levy Has] Been Thinking About This Story For Quite Some Time”

If you ask Kathleen Kennedy (and we did), Deadpool & Wolverine and Stranger Things director Shawn Levy is “one of the perfect directors for Star Wars.” Here’s why: “He has that wonderful sense of humor [and] fun, [and he] loves Star Wars. He’s been dying to do this forever. I talked to him, as he mentioned, in 2022, but I [actually] talked to him even before that. He had gotten into Stranger Things, and that success took him off the market for a while.”

“[But] he’s been thinking about this story for quite some time and wanting to do something in the Star Wars universe, I think, his whole life.”

When it comes to the casting of Ryan Gosling, Kennedy said that “Sean started talking about Ryan right from the beginning. When he was developing this, he had Ryan in mind.”

Gosling’s casting had also been heavily rumored even before the Star Wars Celebration announcement. “It’s difficult,” Kennedy said, about how much information she would like to be shared versus held back, “With Star Wars, it’s really tough because everybody wants to know things, so rumors get out.”

“It was funny to hear Shawn sort of tee that up with Ryan,” she continued, “because there are endless rumors–some things are factual and some things are not. Really, the way we look at it is [that] we just don’t respond to any of it. At the end of the day, we’re only going to talk about the things that we know are real and not really spend time talking about speculation. That’s pretty much how we handle it.”

Kathleen Kennedy On The Future Of Star Wars

“There [Are] Endless Stories That Can Be Told”

If the upcoming Star Wars slate feels slightly disjointed, that is, in some ways, both a bug and feature of the universe George Lucas created. “We’ve never developed this [franchise] around particular characters,” Kennedy said when asked about the challenge of not having one central Star Wars star, “It’s a place. It’s a galaxy far, far away, so there [are] endless stories that can be told.”

But that can present a challenge said Kennedy: “You don’t want to get so scattered that there’s nothing to follow, [but,] at the same time, we don’t want to have every little thing connect, either. We want to tell great stories, and I think that’s why we rely so heavily on strong storytellers and filmmakers to come into the space and have a point of view.”

Speaking of strong storytellers, Kennedy weighed in on the in-development Taika Waititi Star Wars movie and why there have been no real updates about it since it was announced in 2020. “Taika’s on Taika time,” said Kennedy. “All I can tell you is there’s no one like him, and what he’s done up to this point is so unique and so great and really funny. I’ve just continually said to him, ‘Look, when you feel that you’re ready and you can really devote the time, we’re going to do it. We’ll be waiting.’”

It sounds like Waititi at least has some very talented allies on his side: “The great thing is,” Kennedy shared, “we brought [in] a wonderful writer in Tony McNamara who’s done incredible work. He did Poor Things, and he did The Great. [He has a] wonderful sense of humor [that] works really well with Taika. So, we’ll see in the development process. You never quite know [when] you’re working on a story and developing a script. You may have all the right intentions and you don’t get there.”

“But,” Kennedy said, “I think he has such a unique way in which he tells a story that I’m just hoping we get there. That will be a great Star Wars movie.”

Kathleen Kennedy Reflects On Her Own Journey From Producer To Executive

From Making Movies To Spearheading “One Of The Most Important Mythologies In Cinema”

Kathleen Kennedy has been in charge of Lucasfilm for 13 years. “I stepped into this never having really been an executive before,” she revealed, saying, “I’ve always been a filmmaker, and I was very intrigued to have a peek behind the curtain. And I’ve learned a tremendous amount … I’ve been so fortunate to have [this career] and still keep learning new things.”

“It’s really been eye-opening to see how complex this is,” Kennedy shared, revealing what may be the job’s biggest challenge: “Since George sold the company and it became part of Disney, [the questions have been about] where these movies actually fit within a company this size, how do they remain unique to Lucasfilm, how do you preserve that culturally, and how do we hang on to the values and the ideas that George created around this mythology, [which is] probably one of the most important mythologies in cinema?”

“I have an amazing team of people that work with me, [and] we talk about [that] all the time. There’s not a day that goes by that we’re not testing the waters and stress-testing what it is that George created. It’s been a wonderful experience,” Kennedy said.

And for those who keep asking, Kennedy had one final message: “I’m not retired. I’m not going anywhere.”