Star Wars film boss Kathleen Kennedy will ‘step down’ this year months after Elon Musk said she’d turned the franchise ‘woke’.
Kennedy, 71, told associates that she plans to retire by the end of the year, Puck reported last night.
She joined Lucasfilm in 2012 as co-chair alongside George Lucas, stepping up when Disney took over and Lucas left.
But Kennedy has allegedly now told Disney, friends and associates that she will leave at the end of the year.
The veteran film producer had reportedly planned to leave last year, but chose to stay on, according to Puck.
Elon Musk had last year attacked the Lucasfilm boss for pushing what he called a ‘woke’ agenda in The Acolyte.
Kennedy acknowledged the criticism of Star Wars’ direction in November, telling the New York Times that ‘women who step into Star Wars struggle’ with the expectation.
‘Because of the fan base being so male-dominated, they sometimes get attacked in ways that can be quite personal,’ she said.
‘My belief is that storytelling does need to be representative of all people. That’s an easy decision for me.’
Kathleen Kennedy at the 39th Annual American Society of Cinematographers Awards held at The Beverly Hilton on February 23, 2025 in Los Angeles, California
Elon Musk speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC, at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, on February 20
Daisy Ridley portrays Rey in the 2015 film Star Wars – The Force Awakens
Last year saw the release of The Acolyte, following a former Padawan reuniting with her Jedi master.
Some praised the spinoff for its diverse cast, but critics piled on with negative reviews.
An aggregate of top film critic reviews on Rotten Tomatoes gave the show a 72 per cent positive rating.
But audience reviews painted a very different picture, with The Acolyte receiving just 19 per cent support.
Elon Musk responded to a post on X that pictured Kennedy as a ‘franchise killer’, asserting that ‘she’s more deadly than the Death Star!’
Musk also accused Kennedy of being ‘super bigoted against men’, without qualification.
He was responding to an X post that said she hired Leslye Headland to direct The Acolyte because she had struggled as showrunner due to the fanbase.
Amandla Stenberg, who portrayed Verosha and Mae-ho Aniseya in The Acolyte, said she received ‘intolerable racism’ from the fanbase after the show aired.
She released a music video on Instagram in response, prompting critics to assert that the series was not as good as previous releases.
The Acolyte was cancelled after one season.
Lee Jung-Jae, who played Master Sol, said he was ‘personally really looking forward to watching a season 2 with [Leslye] at the helm’, despite being killed off in season one.
South Park joined critics in slating Kennedy and Disney CEO Bob Iger for ‘pandering’ to audiences in the 2023 episode ‘Joining the Panderverse’, before The Acolyte aired.
The satire saw the group of fourth graders transported to a parallel universe in which the South Park residents were racially diverse women.
Kennedy, resembling Eric Cartman, would demand wider inclusion of minority groups through the show, telling producers to ‘put a chick in it’ and ‘make her lame and gay!’
Kennedy previously collaborated on a number of blockbuster hits including Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and The Goonies (1985).
The film Star Wars: New Jedi Order is set after the most recent Star Wars sequel, 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker, and will be centered on Daisy Ridley’s character Rey.
Bob Iger holds a news conference at Shanghai Disney Resort as part of the three-day Grand Opening events in Shanghai, China, June 15, 2016
Two-time Oscar winner Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy has declared ‘it’s about time’ a woman shaped a Star Wars film as she is set to become the first woman and the first person of color to direct a feature film for the franchise
Sharmeen, pictured with Daisy in April 2023, said: ‘What we’re about to create is something very special. We’re in 2024 now, and it’s about time that we had a woman come forward’
Two-time Oscar winner Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, set to become the first woman and person of color to direct a feature film for the franchise, doubled down on the franchise’s direction, saying it was ‘about time’ a woman shaped a Star Wars film.
‘I like to make men uncomfortable. I enjoy making men uncomfortable,’ she said during a panel, which she participated in after winning the Oscar for a documentary about acid attacks against Pakistani women.
‘It is important to be able to look into the eyes of a man and say, I am here, and recognize that, and recognize that I am working to bring something that makes you uncomfortable, and it should make you uncomfortable,’ she added.
Commentator Matt Walsh was among those to criticize her comments, hitting out: ‘Here’s the feminist director of the next Star Wars film saying that her goal is to ‘make men uncomfortable.’
‘This movie is destined to be Disney’s biggest flop yet.’
