Kathleen Kennedy lambasted a published report that she is retiring from Lucasfilm at the end of the year.
“I will die making movies,” she said in an interview with Deadline on Thursday. “The truth is, and I want to just say loud and clear, I am not retiring. I will never retire from movies. I will die making movies.”
On Monday, Matthew Belloni reported on Puck, citing three unnamed sources, “Kathleen Kennedy has informed Disney, as well as friends and associates, that she will exit as Lucasfilm president by the end of the year.”
The longtime film executive says she has been working on a plan for her “eventual succession” but Puck’s report of her imminent retirement is false.
Kennedy added: “What’s happening at Lucasfilm is I have been talking for quite some time with both Bob and Alan about what eventual succession might look like. We have an amazing bench of people here, and we have every intention of making an announcement months or a year down the road.”
Kennedy said she is busy producing the “The Mandalorian and Grogu” movie right now, and is also producing the Sean Levy-directed “Star Wars” film, which is after that.
Kennedy added that she will continue to stay at Lucasfilm and is ” looking very thoughtfully with Bob and Alan as to who’s stepping in.”
“So I’m continuing to stay at Lucasfilm … So that is all underway, and we have every right to make that announcement when we want to make it,” she concluded.
While there are projects in the works from Shawn Levy and James Mangold, plus a new trilogy overseen by Simon Kinberg, next year’s “The Mandalorian and Grogu,” a big-screen spinoff of the popular streaming show, will be the first theatrical project from the studio since 2019.
