Is pressure building to sunset Kathleen Kennedy out of her position at Lucasfilm, and is that why she’s pushing a Waititi Star Wars release so soon?
For the first time in my history, I’m starting to hear and relay that Kathleen Kennedy’s time may be coming to an end at Lucasfilm. For longtime readers of the site and of my publications, you may recall that back in September of 2021, I was one of the only voices out there claiming that Kathleen Kennedy had both frustrated Bob Chapek’s leadership team and probably earned a contract extension. This was prior to the announcement that her contract was being extended, so it goes to show that I try to relay accurate information as it comes in, whether or not it aligns with what I think should happen behind the scenes. Here’s what I had to say back then:
Of course, since May things have changed again. The number one rule for Indiana Jones 5 was safety, yet Kennedy was present for filming in Scotland and Harrison Ford still was injured to the point he still hasn’t started filming again. Word around Hollywood is that the film’s budget has ballooned due to the situation, something that isn’t uncommon for Mrs. Kennedy’s tenure at Lucasfilm. I’m told the Indiana Jones situation has created more friction between Kennedy and Chapek’s team.
Yet at the same time, Kennedy is almost certainly going to have her contract extended. According to sources, the contract negotiations were finalized sometime in very late August, despite the contract having been originally planned (reportedly) to be finalized in June. One source that has been right very often in the past claims that Kennedy’s new contract will be for 1-2 years. Given that Kathleen Kennedy just turned 70 years old, that seems probable to me. And, based on what I’ve been told, the real reason Kennedy is sticking around is to see Indiana Jones 5 through to completion. That would be the completion of her career, as well as quite a few others.
— Kathleen Kennedy Almost Certain to Receive Contract Extension
If you’re reading this article today, you may be arriving because of the latest Overlord DVD YouTube video starring Doomcock. I did indeed send him some information as to what I’ve been hearing lately. And just as he always is careful to call a rumor a rumor, I want to also be careful to fully disclose that the information I’m providing is discussing the future. As such, I cannot verify that it will absolutely occur. I can’t absolutely confirm that I’ll drink coffee in the morning (even though it’s extremely likely), little alone tell you exactly what will happen with a major corporation. What I can do is speculate a bit based on what my sources are telling me, and then you can go back and see if my track record is decent enough to enjoy this with a grain of salt. I didn’t lead you astray on Kathleen Kennedy’s contract extension and I didn’t get the Harrison Ford injury from last year wrong — maybe I know a little bit about Lucasfilm. Maybe.
So let’s dive into the rumors I’m hearing. I’ll be speaking broad terms to protect sources and to avoid any direct statements of fact. I do not make any claims about having seen private documents or having access to private/company conversations. Please treat this as speculation and rumor only.
“You know that’s why she’s pushing the Taika Waititi 2023 movie launch, right?”
That was the comment from a contact I have who was explaining what she believes is going on with Kathleen Kennedy and Lucasfilm. Suddenly it began to all click for me and things were making sense. What I had been hearing for years is that Kathleen Kennedy wants to finish Indiana Jones 5 and she wants to continue having Star Wars influence… but I’ve also been hearing for months now that relations between herself and Jon Favreau are strained. Favreau allegedly has the ear of Bob Chapek, a corporate leader who trusts Favreau based on his decades of excellence. And Favreau is not the kind of person to throw anyone under the bus. If you’d like to know what kind of person Jon Favreau is, look no farther than the way he handled Will Ferrell on the set of Elf. Despite Ferrell doing everything in his power to undermine the film, undermine the director, and even force Favreau out of directing the sequel, Favreau has never spoken ill of Ferrell to my best knowledge.
“The director and Will didn’t get along very well. Will wanted to do it, and he didn’t want the director, and [Favreau] had it in his contract. It was one of those things.”
But even though Favreau doesn’t go public with his beefs, he’s been biding his time now watching Star Wars falter. Rumors abound that Kathleen Kennedy went behind his back on the Book of Boba Fett and made it more difficult to accomplish success with the series. A Variety photo shoot made even more people question the relationship as Favreau looked genuinely unhappy. Valliant Renegade brought up in a conversation with me a time when Favreau quieted Kennedy during a conversation publicly — that’s a big no-no for any male Hollywood figure. Yet he did it.
The problem for Disney is that they want to keep Favreau working on Star Wars while also consulting with him on a broader spectrum of projects. At the same time, he’s being thwarted by the ineptitude of Kathleen Kennedy. Equally important, Favreau could walk at any point and make a huge sum of money from any other studio in the world. He is one of the most coveted creators on the planet. While I don’t think he wants to walk from Disney necessarily and in full, I am hearing that he’s now growing tired of Star Wars and its inability to escape the influences of Kennedy’s Lucasfilm.
So what is Disney to do?
Well, as I relayed to Overlord DVD, I think there’s something special about 2023. I think that Kathleen Kennedy may finally sunset her obligations at that point. It will likely be late 2023, and of course plenty can change between now and then. But I do think that Kennedy’s push for the next Star Wars movie so quickly is a tell… it’s a tell that she wants to get something out on the box office quickly to prove to the world that Star Wars was alive and well before her exit. I think that exit isn’t too far away. There are simply too many mistakes, there is too much pressure inside the company to begin purging out executives who aren’t producing success, and Bob Chapek has shored up his power to make changes that would have been very difficult up until the last month.
So why would I be saying all of this? Is it just mere personal thoughts? Well… let’s put it this way: if you were wanting to push out Kathleen Kennedy from her position at Lucasfilm, don’t you think there would be some movement beforehand to prepare a transition?
If you’re hanging in there until now, check out the Overlord DVD video that went up today and see what you think. There is some language in there, so be careful about playing it out loud at work or in the car with kids. It’s also viciously funny in places.
Final food for thought: If Kennedy leaves in later 2023, that gives just enough time for Chapek to get someone else in there to produce a Star Wars film that is definitively Chapek’s doing… just in time for his next potential contract extension. Hmm.
For all the latest news that should be fun, keep reading That Park Place. As always, drop a comment down below and let me know your thoughts.
If they were serious, they’d frog march her out of the building. But they aren’t and they won’t. I’ve heard this stuff for 2 years and she is still there with a new contract.
Things aren’t that simple behind the scenes. Evidently for people in Chapek’s and Favreau’s positions, there are times you have to choose the lesser of two evils for the moment. They’re fighting against entrenched opposition within LucasFilm AND Disney (plus Pixar and Disney Animation in Chapek’s case) that were put there by the previous CEO. Sometimes you can’t just fire all the problem people or cancel all the bad projects already in the pipeline. So far we’ve seen Chapek’s strategy is to give his enemies rope to hang themselves with. He did it with Feige during the ScarJo lawsuit and he did it again with Pixar and Lightyear. The real surprise was him unceremoniously firing Peter Rice, the bigwig behind Reimagine Tomorrow and the attempted coup on Chapek. Then there’s Ton Newton not being allowed an interview.
Basically this is a slow process, but lately things have been happening faster than expected. We just want this all to be over with yesterday.
You’ve never heard it from me before.
Wasn’t attempting to single you out. But it has been around “forever”. If it does happen like the rumor states, it will probably be too late to save the brand.
You’re right. And even if KK is fired, what then?
You still have all of the untalented hacktivists hired during KK’s time working for the studio.
Unless someone does a complete purge of LF from top to bottom, they’re not going to be capable of making good SW under KK or anyone else. You can’t make good SW with the communist creators that make up the company.
Someone needs to get some “intestinal fortitude” and publicly fire KK. She is desperate to be seen as an accomplished filmmaker and with out having that success, she won’t leave quietly. Part of me also wonders if Watiti didn’t “sabotage” his own Star Wars project because he also doesn’t want her meddling interference.
Kennedy is epitome of the Pink Floyd lyrics from Time:
“Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought I’d something more to say”
It baffles me how KK has lasted this long, but apparently overseeing financially successful projects isn’t necessary to her keeping her position. So while I hope this is true, it will be too late to prevent the irreversible damage done to the Star Wars IP. I was a life-long fan, but I walked away from it after they unjustly fired Gina Carano – that was the last straw. But since then, matters have only become worse and there’s nothing that can bring me back to Star Wars. All I do now is watch the dumpster fire burn.
Here is what I’ve surmised since Chapeks got his contract extension: Kennedy and her husband have been on an extended tour of Europe. You can easily find this out by following Frank Marshall on Instagram. They’ve gone from Portugal, to Ibiza Spain, to Mallorca, to Provence and now they’re in England. They’ve been gone since 27 June. Now why am I bringing this up: because it’s very telling they’re leaving right when all of this stuff started happening. Right after Peter Rice got fired. Now it could be a planned vacation they had been planning since forever. maybe it’s their anniversary coming up. I don’t know. however it’s very interesting the timing and because I look at the details and small minute bits of information this is a very telling bit of an info. And watching Star Wars celebration, Favreau and Kennedy seemed very cordial. But she wasn’t in charge and you could tell she wasn’t in charge. When Harrison Ford came out to talk about Indy 5 he was in charge and she was off to the side interrupting him which earned her a look of frustration from
Mr Harry. As far as the news about John Favreau I don’t believe a word and the reason why is because it’s obvious that he won. Maybe she’s got some of her minions doing things on her behalf that she didn’t ask him to I don’t know but I don’t see him quitting. This to me would have me asking the purveyor of the rumor where did you hear this who and why name told you this. Because to me and this is the way I think it looks like false information planted to cause a problem. You’ve got truth in this rumor I do believe that there’s pressure on Kennedy to quit but I think that pressure’s been there for at least the last three years and you got what looks to be false information about Favreau. I’d be very careful about putting any more of that out there because you’re only helping Kennedys flying monkeys if you do that.
I’ve heard this before and nothing happened. Hope it does, but doubt it happens.
Because you dont get it. Never worked in a political environment. Your lack of understanding shows
There have been rumors about Kennedy being fired nonstop for the last several years (yes, I am aware WDW Pro was not the source of the prior rounds of rumors).
These rumors never come true, and last year she got a vote of confidence in the form of a contract extension from Chapek in November. I don’t believe that Chapek is waiting until “the time is right” to fire her and I don’t think there’s any “10-dimensional chess” game being played to remove her.
Kennedy is there and got a contract extension because Chapek has full confidence in her and wants her there. End of story.
Y’all will post about Kathleen Kennedy getting forced out every three months until it finally happens.
If Favreau leaves, I hope he doesn’t, then Star Wars really is gone because Filoni can’t do it all by himself.
She doesn’t need another year to leave. If Chapek can fire Peter Rice in an instant, why can’t he fire Kathleen Kennedy? He could.
Why can’t Bob Chapek just fired her already if it makes those crazy Star Wars fans happy?
There’s a big part of me that wonders if these leaks coming out about Favreau aren’t part of Chapeks plan.
1. I don’t doubt that Jon Favreau is frustrated and willing to walk away if Disney will not let him fix things.
2. However, during Celebration, he made a comment to the effect of “I’m planning to be here for a long, long time.” When I heard that, I believed it was a direct shot across the bow of Kennedy.
3. With Chapek making the moves he’s making right now, leaking these stories puts pressure on the board – it could give Chapek the ammunition he needs to more fully put Kennedy into a box until the end of 2023. If this IS the plan, I would expect some actual formal announcements about Favreaus role in guiding Disney properties in the near future.
Great points, Lorn!
Really hope you’re right. I’ve had some hope that Favreau is our ally on the inside, wanting to do what’s right for the franchise and fans, but it’s difficult to see past everything that’s been happening.
Add to all the ‘Star Wars’ legos all over Spiderman No Way Home in John Favreau character’s condo. I think he was hinting he ‘owns’ Star Wars at around that point.
That said, Kennedy and her minions can still do damage in the meantime until they are shut out.