Kathleen Kennedy, who helped produce and create movies like Jurassic Park, E.T., and Indiana Jones, is officially stepping down from her function as Lucasfilm president after holding the place since George Lucas left following the Disney deal in 2012. And in a brand new interview with Kennedy, the longtime producer and filmmaker shared some updates on numerous Star Wars initiatives, and the one Star Wars venture that left her with regrets.
On January 15, after asserting her departure from Lucasfilm, Deadline posted a lengthy interview with the outgoing producer and president overlaying a complete lot of floor. Depressingly, Kennedy appears to be enthusiastic about AI and desires to work with the tech to make new stuff. She additionally advised the outlet that she’s been planning this exit for just a few years now and hand-picked her successors, Clone Wars creator Dave Filoni and veteran ILM supervisor Lynwen Brennan. And whereas she’ll nonetheless be round producing future Star Wars movies, together with Ryan Gosling’s Starfighter and the upcoming Mandalorian and Grogu flick, it’s clear from this interview that Kennedy was bored with Disney not eager to take extra dangers on initiatives like Andor.
A brand new Star Wars trilogy and an replace on the Ben Solo film
Maybe the most important information to come back out of this interview is Kennedy sharing the standing of assorted Star Wars film initiatives and confirming that the previously announced Star Wars trilogy being led by screenwriter Simon Kinberg remains to be occurring, at the least for now.
“[James] Mangold’s is really on the back burner, as is Soderbergh’s [Ben Solo film],” Kennedy advised the outlet. “I think the ones by Taika and Donald [Glover] are still somewhat alive. That’s going to really be up to the new team to figure out. Dave, I know that Dave [Filoni] and Lynwen [Brennan] are very much on board with what Simon [Kinnberg]’s doing, and that would be a new trilogy. In the timeline of things, that takes you well into 2030 plus. So that’s really what’s up next.”
It was previously reported that this new Star Wars trilogy wouldn’t be related to the Skywalker Saga, however it’s also potential that issues have modified. Kennedy makes it clear on this interview that placing collectively Star Wars films takes a few years of dedication, and quite a lot of administrators and filmmakers aren’t prepared to decide to such an enterprise. That possible explains the massive variety of canceled and delayed Star Wars films during the last seven years or so. As for the standing of Kinberg’s first movie on this new trilogy, it doesn’t sound near filming in any respect.
“[Kinberg is] working right now.,” mentioned Kennedy. “He wrote something that we read in August, and it was very good, but not there. We’ve pretty much upended the story, and then spent a great deal of time on the treatment, which he finished literally about four weeks ago. And it’s a very detailed treatment, like 70 pages. And so he is expected to give us something in March.”
I wouldn’t get too enthusiastic about this trilogy but. Keep in mind that Rian Johnson, who directed The Final Jedi, was tapped to direct a brand new trilogy of movies after his 2017 Star Wars film was an enormous hit. However in line with Kennedy, the unfavorable firestorm on-line scared him away, and he acquired distracted with Knives Out and its sequels. So who is aware of if this new trilogy will occur anytime quickly or ever.
Regrets and considerations about studios being too afraid of threat
Elsewhere within the interview, Kennedy referred to as the script for the Ben Solo movie, whose existence was leaked publicly by Adam Driver final yr and acquired followers very excited, “great.” And it may nonetheless occur, in line with her. “Anything’s a possibility if somebody’s willing to take a risk.” Nonetheless, that appears unlikely because the longtime Lucasfilm boss defined that, in the intervening time, Disney and different massive studios aren’t thinking about taking daring swings and massive dangers.
“Right now we’re in an era where companies are so risk-averse, and I get it,” mentioned Kennedy. “I hear all the conversations. They’ve got Wall Street to please, and I get it, but I also believe that that’s what contributes to things disappearing, ultimately. I just think you have to take those chances. Everything I just reeled off to you is taking a bit of a chance because none of those filmmakers are just walking in trying to do the same old, same old. I’m excited by that, but the studio’s nervous about that, and that’s kind of where it sits at the moment.”
And as for whether or not she has any regrets from her time as president of Lucasfilm, Kennedy listed the 2018 Solo spin-off movie as the one one as a result of, in line with her, they tried to exchange Harrison Ford, and that was all the time going to be a virtually not possible problem.
“We were so excited about that idea,” mentioned Kennedy. “And then when you’re into something, and you realize fundamentally, conceptually, you cannot replace Han Solo, at least right now. As wonderful as Alden Ehrenreich was, and he really was good, and is a wonderful actor, we put him in an impossible situation. And once you’re in it and once you’re committed, you’ve got to carry on. I think I have a bit of regret about that, but not about the moviemaking and filmmaking. I don’t have regrets about that. I just think that conceptually, we did it too soon.”
