Kathleen Kennedy Out After 14 Years as Star Wars Plots a DCU-Style Reset

Lucasfilm is reshuffling the deck. After 14 years at the top, Kathleen Kennedy is stepping down as president, and the studio is splitting the job in two. Per Puck News, Dave Filoni will become the creative boss, while Lynwen Brennan handles the operations and business side. If that sounds familiar, it is: it mirrors DC Studios, where James Gunn steers the storytelling and Peter Safran runs the corporate machine.

What this split actually does

• Dave Filoni will set the creative direction across Star Wars movies and TV, the way Gunn does at DC.
• Lynwen Brennan will oversee the operational side: release schedules, global distribution, budgeting and spreadsheets, shareholder wrangling, all of it.
• The upside: Filoni can focus on story without corporate static, which is exactly what a lot of fans have been begging for after the sequel trilogy zig-zagged.
• The potential downside: if a project underperforms, who takes the heat becomes a lot murkier.

Why Filoni is the guy fans expected

Filoni is not your classic studio suit, and that is precisely the point. He has a track record that hardcore and casual fans both respect: The Clone Wars, Rebels, The Mandalorian, and Ahsoka. He gets the mythology. Handing him full creative authority is the logical move if the goal is to bring coherence back to the galaxy far, far away.

Where Brennan fits

Star Wars is not just lore; it is a multi-billion-dollar IP that lives and dies on logistics and timing. Pairing Filoni with Brennan means the nuts-and-bolts stuff does not land on his desk. She keeps the trains running; he decides where they are going.

The DC comparison, and the catch

Warner Bros. Discovery rebooted DC Studios after the DCEU fizzled and went with a clean reset under Gunn and Safran. Star Wars cannot do a hard reboot like that—the canon is massive and already deeply mapped out—so Lucasfilm is borrowing the leadership model instead of wiping the slate.

Worth noting: the DCU approach is still new and not fully battle-tested. The early signs have been positive (those first two projects landed well), but it is still early days. Disney’s intent here is pretty clear, though: get Star Wars guided again, not managed by a committee that seems fuzzy on what makes the saga tick.

Big picture

This feels like a course correction after franchise fatigue and some uneven box-office results. On paper, the split makes sense: let the storyteller steer, let the operator operate. If they actually give Filoni the room the title implies, this could be the clarity pass the franchise has needed.

What do you think: smart evolution or just another reshuffle with a fancier title?

You can stream every Star Wars movie and series on Disney+ in the US.