Kathleen Kennedy Provides Updates on Donald Glover's "Lando," Rian Johnson's Star Wars, Ben Solo Movie and More in Lucasfilm Exit Interview

After this afternoon's official confirmation that Kathleen Kennedy is indeed stepping down as Lucasfilm's president, she participated in an exit interview with one of Hollywood's most trusted trade publications, providing status updates on a number of previously announced Star Wars projects that are either still in the works or have been moved to the backburner. Find out more below.

What's happening:

• This afternoon, Deadline ran an exit interview with Kathleen Kennedy after The Walt Disney Company's official announcement of her stepping down as Lucasfilm's president after tenure of 13 years and a few months.
• During the interview, Kennedy talked about why Lucasfilm's Chief Creative Officer Dave Filoni and President & General Manager of Business Lynwen Brennan were the right choices for her successors.
• She also touched upon the potential of A.I. technology in the future of filmmaking, expressed enthusiasm for Lucasfilm's upcoming movies The Mandalorian and Grogu and Star Wars: Starfighter and provided updates on a number of Star Wars projects that we previously knew to be in the works.

• In one of the more surprising moments of the interview, Kathleen Kennedy mentioned that she met with Breaking Bad and Pluribus creator Vince Gilligan about developing Star Wars for television. She also confirms reports that Fight Club and Seven director David Fincher had been in early talks to helm a Star Wars film. Ex Machina and Annihilation filmmaker Alex Garland is another name that gets mentions as having had meetings with Kennedy.
• James Mangold (Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny) and Beau Willimon (Andor: A Star Wars Story) "wrote an incredible script" for their movie, which was announced at Star Wars Celebration 2023 in London and is focused on the origins of the Jedi Order. However, Kennedy says that the movie "is definitely breaking the mold" and thus it is currently on hold.
• Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok, What We Do In the Shadows) also turned in a script that Kennedy thinks is "hilarious and great," though she adds that it's no longer her decision whether it moves forward or not.
• Donald Glover (Solo: A Star Wars Story, Community) has similarly turned in a script for his Lando movie, which was first announced back in December of 2020 as a Disney+ series. This film and Waititi's are described in the interview as being "somewhat still alive."

• Kennedy also confirms that writer Scott Z. Burns (The Bourne Ultimatum) wrote the script for a Ben Solo movie that would have been directed by Steven Soderbergh (Ocean's 11, Traffic) and starred Adam Driver (Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Marriage Story). "It was just great," she says about this film, which she describes as being "on the backburner. Anything’s a possibility if somebody’s willing to take a risk."
• Regarding Rian Johnson's Star Wars trilogy, which was announced by Lucasfilm as being in development prior to the 2017 release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Kennedy says that the filmmaker's hugely successful Knives Out movies have occupied most of his time. She also suggests that Rian "got spooked" by the fan response to The Last Jedi, though every time I've seen him asked about it he expresses desire to return to A Galaxy Far, Far Away.
• Speaking of trilogies, Simon Kinberg (Star Wars Rebels, X-Men: Dark Phoenix) wrote a treatment for his proposed trilogy that Kennedy believed still needed work, so he's back to the drawing board and expected to turn in a reworked version in March. Apparently Filoni and Brennan have been heavily involved in this project, and with Kathy stepping down, further development would be up to them on all of the above.

What they're saying:

• Kathleen Kennedy (via Deadline): "Right now we’re in an era where companies are so risk-averse, and I get it. 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 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."