Kathleen Kennedy has stepped down as the head of Star Wars studio Lucasfilm.
After many months of speculation, Lucasfilm announced on Thursday that Kennedy will be retiring as the studio's President after 14 years of leadership.
She will be replaced by the studio's Chief Creative Officer, Dave Filoni, and General Manager Lynwen Brennan, and return to full-time producing, including the upcoming Star Wars films The Mandalorian and Grogu and Star Wars: Starfighter.
In an exit interview with Deadline, the executive revealed that the transition plan has been in the works for two years, and she is now ready to produce a wider variety of movies, perhaps with her husband Frank Marshall.
"I told everybody I would stick around a bit longer than I had intended, but I am so ready to go off and have the chance to make lots of movies," she said. "I want to do more movies, and I want the opportunity to get back to a kind of eclectic group of movies the way I used to. I'm looking forward to working with Frank again on some stuff."
Kennedy was appointed President by creator George Lucas in 2012, when Disney acquired Lucasfilm. During her tenure, she spearheaded the recent Star Wars trilogy, two spin-off prequels, and TV shows including The Mandalorian, Andor and Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Before her stint with the company, she produced films such as Jurassic Park, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Twister, The Sixth Sense and the Indiana Jones franchise, the latter being another Lucasfilm property.
In her interview with Deadline, which was conducted in December, Kennedy noted that she was exclusive to Lucasfilm until January, so she didn't have any other producing projects officially in the works.
The 72-year-old added that she was "open" to producing Star Wars movies that went into development during her tenure.
"Certainly in the things that I've been involved in, and the filmmakers that I've been working with, I'd love to see those through if I could," she shared. "But I'm not mandating any of that. I'm genuinely trying to support the new team that's coming in and encouraging them to make the decisions."
