Star Wars Games May Change Direction as Lucasfilm Boss Is Reportedly Retiring This Year
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- Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm, is reportedly set to retire this year.
- Under Kennedy, Star Wars gaming was mostly led by external developers like EA.
- Quantic Dream’s Star Wars Eclipse and a third entry in the Star Wars Jedi series are already in the pipeline.
According to reports, Kathleen Kennedy, the president of Lucasfilm, is about to retire later this year. This announcement could mark the end of an era for the company that owns the Star Wars franchise she has led since its acquisition by Disney in 2012.
The news first broke via Puck, with Variety confirming the report. However, both outlets indicated that while Kennedy has expressed her intent to step down, no official confirmation has been made as of yet.
Kathleen’s tenure at Lucasfilm saw the revival of the Star Wars franchise, guiding the release of the Sequel Trilogy, beginning with The Force Awakens (2015) with Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) following and concluding with The Rise of Skywalker (2019).
On top of that, she expanded the universe with standalone films like Rogue One and Solo: A Star Wars Story, as well as a vast number of Star Wars Disney+ series.
Under Kennedy’s leadership, Lucasfilm adopted a hands-off approach to Star Wars video games, instead allowing external developers to lead the charge. The 2013 partnership between Disney and EA marked the beginning of a new era for Star Wars gaming, one that saw the release of major titles like Star Wars Battlefront (2015) and Star Wars Battlefront II (2017), both of which combined to sell over 33 million copies by late 2019. The success of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (2019) by Respawn Entertainment (owned by Electronic Arts since 2017) was a notable highlight during this time, leading to the development of its 2023 sequel, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, which failed to achieve the same success as the first installment.
However, with the expiration of EA’s exclusivity deal, Star Wars games have begun to diversify, with new titles from Ubisoft, like Star Wars Outlaws, which has been such a big failure that it became a reason for layoffs.
While numerous Star Wars games are already in the pipeline, including Quantic Dream’s Star Wars Eclipse and a third entry in the Star Wars Jedi series, the direction of future Star Wars video games could be reshaped depending on the leadership at Lucasfilm.
