Star Wars Boss Is Reportedly Retiring This Yr, Which Could Be A Major Shakeup

There may be a terrific disturbance within the Drive, as a brand new report claims that Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy will retire later this yr. The manager has overseen the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises since Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012.

Puck reported that Kennedy has let Disney and mates find out about her plans to step down from Lucasfilm. Nevertheless, whereas Variety corroborated Puck, the commerce publication added that certainly one of its sources mentioned nothing has been finalized as of but. Kennedy was in control of bringing Star Wars again to the silver display screen with the sequel trilogy, which began with The Drive Awakens in 2015 and ended with The Rise of Skywalker in 2019. She additionally expanded the franchise with non-Skywalker Saga movies like Rogue One and Solo: A Star Wars Story–let alone the a number of Disney+ exhibits.

One space that Kennedy appeared to remain hands-off was video video games. As an illustration, her official description on the Lucasfilm website as president would not observe any involvement in video games launched over the previous decade-plus (although her identify does seem in credit, resembling in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor). Shortly after Kennedy turned Lucasfilm president, Disney and EA introduced a Star Wars partnership in 2013 for console video games. That settlement led to the creation of 2015’s Star Wars Battlefront and 2017’s Star Wars Battlefront II, with Disney calling EA a “good” associate in 2019. The 2 Battlefront video games mixed to promote 33 million copies as of late 2019. Moreover, in 2014 earlier than these video games had been launched, Lucasfilm acknowledged that every one video games could be thought of official Star Wars canon going ahead.

In 2020, EA revealed its plans to “double down” on Star Wars, following the success of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order from Respawn Leisure. The developer recognized for Titanfall and Apex Legends delivered a sequel in 2023 with the beforehand talked about Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. Nevertheless, the EA exclusivity interval ended earlier this decade as Ubisoft took a crack on the Star Wars franchise with final yr’s launch of Star Wars Outlaws. Moreover, Bethesda (with Xbox publishing) was given the license to create the lately launched Indiana Jones and the Nice Circle–another main Lucasfilm franchise. Needless to say earlier than Disney purchased Lucasfilm, there was an inside sport firm named LucasArt that was shuttered after the acquisition in 2013.

In 2022, Kennedy spoke with Empire about how the Star Wars video video games have influenced storytelling for the exhibits and movies. “It is humorous, the extra I’ve bought to understand how video games are written, and that sort of persistent storytelling that goes on in a sport surroundings the place you are simply always constructing upon a single story, that is a lot nearer to what Star Wars is,” Kennedy mentioned on the time.

Underneath Kennedy’s reign, Lucasfilm has regarded to license its properties to main publishers, who dealt with improvement of the Star Wars video video games. Whereas it is unclear precisely what her position was within the online game house, it is attainable her successor would look to exert extra management or may in any other case steer the long run course of the franchise’s gaming ambitions.

For instance, DC Studios co-chiefs James Gunn and Peter Safran have sat down with leaders at NetherRealm and Rocksteady lately to debate future video games that includes their superhero universe. The duo may not be hands-on in each step of the method, however they defined how they bounce storytelling suggestions off the groups because the motion pictures and exhibits may already be taking an analogous angle.

There are fairly a couple of Star Wars video games already introduced for the approaching years. Developer Quantic Goals simply clarified that Star Wars Eclipse will not be affected by the most important NetEase shakeup. There’s additionally a Star Wars technique sport within the works, alongside experiences of a 3rd entry within the Star Wars Jedi collection. In the meantime, Lucasfilm Video games government Douglas Reilly expressed curiosity in additional Indiana Jones video games on the finish of final yr.

One factor does appear fairly sure, although. It doesn’t matter what occurs on the prime spot for Lucasfilm, there will probably be extra Star Wars video games for years and even a long time to come back. However what they appear like and the way they’re developed may change dramatically, relying on the following Lucasfilm president.