With reports now circulating about Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy’s departure from the home of the Star Wars franchise later this year, the reason for her stepping down has already become a subject of speculation – though it’s actually very simple and understandable. Kennedy has been in her presidential role at Lucasfilm ever since 2012, and her tenure has certainly been controversial, mostly due to Disney’s acquisition of the franchise at the time of her appointment.

Unfortunately, Kennedy has long since been on the receiving end of intense negativity from Star Wars fans for years, but this has never deterred her – not even when things got very bad after the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi in 2017. This news of her somewhat sudden departure has thus become even more of a shock for many people. Why is Kennedy stepping away now? Thankfully, it has little to do with any specific negativity, and more to do with the next phase of Kennedy’s own life.

Kathleen Kennedy Is Ready To Retire

She’s Been A Part Of Lucasfilm For A Long Time

Kennedy has been a part of Lucasfilm, and the greater industry, for a long time. At the age of 72, Kennedy is simply ready to retire and put her working life with Star Wars behind her. This is completely understandable; George Lucas was 68 when he decided to sell Lucasfilm, and thus Star Wars, to Disney and move on to a life of retirement.

Kennedy has been putting in the work for a long time, weathering some tough storms during her tenure, and I think it’s more than deserved that she gets to pᴀss the torch now. The topic of her potential successors is a whole other discussion, but that’s likely already been lined up or is currently being determined to allow Kennedy to enter her new era of life. In fact, Kennedy has reportedly already been waiting long enough, and longer than originally planned.

Sources Claim She’d Originally Planned To Leave Last Year

But Plans Changed For Star Wars In 2024

Various sources that are currently reporting about Kennedy’s Lucasfilm departure insist that Kennedy actually planned on leaving last year, and that she even had an exit interview scheduled, but she ultimately decided to hold off. There could be plenty of reasons why that is, especially because of the controversial year Star Wars had in 2024. Leaving right around The Acolyte‘s cancelation, for example, would have unnecessarily tainted her own legacy.

That potential reasoning alone makes it easy to understand why Kennedy decided to hold off on retiring until this year. With Star Wars Celebration Japan set to take place in just two months’ time, it’s likely that Kennedy will formally announce her retirement there, and perhaps even announce her successor. That event, however, will also be doing much more for the Star Wars franchise, which also explains why this is an understandable timeframe for Kennedy’s Lucasfilm departure.

Star Wars Is About To Be Relaunched For A New Era

This Is The Perfect Time For New Leadership, Too

It’s very clear that Star Wars is setting itself up for a relaunch that will be described in greater detail at this year’s Star Wars Celebration. This is because, after Andor season 2 premieres in April of this year, there will be no upcoming Star Wars TV shows aside from Ahsoka season 2 – not in live-action or animation. Celebration has the chance to announce all these new TV projects, likely under a brand-new model that works for Star Wars, though a big focus will be on movies, too.

The next Star Wars project to release after Andor season 2, as of right now, is 2026’s The Mandalorian and Grogu movie, the first Star Wars movie to hit theaters since 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. This movie is clearly acting as a brand-new launching pad for the franchise, similarly to how the debut of The Mandalorian did the same for Star Wars in regard to TV. As Star Wars prepares to reset itself in such a way, it makes sense that its leadership does the same.

Things are lining up well for Kennedy to make her departure and enjoy a life of retirement beyond Star Wars. She has left quite the legacy behind her, and although some may focus on the negativity and the controversy, there’s also so much good Kennedy contributed to Lucasfilm during her tenure. After all, it was under her leadership that we got beloved Star Wars movies and TV shows like Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, The Mandalorian, Andor, and the completion of Star Wars: The Clone Wars – with more still to come.