The Curious Case of Kathleen Kennedy's Retirement

About this episode

The episode discusses the implications of Kathleen Kennedy's reported retirement from Lucasfilm and the surrounding media coverage.

On this episode of Hyperspace Theories podcast, Tricia Barr and B.J. Priester detour from our usual focus on fictional storytelling to discuss an instance of real-world events and surrounding narratives in the form of journalistic coverage of the upcoming retirement of Kathleen Kennedy from her current role as president of Lucasfilm. On February 24, 2025, experienced Hollywood journalist Matt Belloni at Puck reported that "Kathleen Kennedy has informed Disney, as well as friends and associates, that she will exit as Lucasfilm president by the end of the year, per three sources." Two of the three longstanding Hollywood trades, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety , quickly corroborated the reported, followed soon after by articles considering potential replacements as Lucasfilm's leader. Then, on February 27, the other major trade, Deadline , ran an extended written interview with Kennedy. Although framed as a debunking of Belloni's reporting, its substance actually verified the fundamental accuracy of his information while presenting a narrative of Kennedy's aspirations to remain an important participant in Star Wars movies after her successors takes over. In addition to closely…

People in this episode

Hosts: Tricia Barr, B.J. Priester

Topics covered

• Kathleen Kennedy
• Lucasfilm
• Star Wars
• Hollywood journalism
• Cinematic storytelling
• Industry news

Keywords

• Kathleen Kennedy
• Lucasfilm
• Star Wars
• Matt Belloni
• Hollywood trades
• film industry
• retirement news

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Disney, Lucasfilm, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Deadline

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