After years of rumors and speculation, Kathleen Kennedy has officially stepped down as the President of Lucasfilm, marking the most significant leadership transition for the studio since the Disney era began. Kennedy was instrumental in the $4 billion deal that brought George Lucas’s legendary company under the Disney umbrella in 2012, serving as the handpicked successor tasked with revitalizing the company. Her tenure resulted in an undeniably uneven era for the studio. While she oversaw the production of massive fan-favorites like The Mandalorian and the critically acclaimed Star Wars: Andor, her leadership also oversaw the polarizing reception of the Star Wars sequel trilogy. While Kennedy is officially leaving her post at Lucasfilm to make way for the new leadership team of Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan, she will keep working in the movie industry and will remain a controversial figure as she embraces artificial intelligence.
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“I told everybody I would stick around a bit longer than I had intended, but I am so ready to go off and have the chance to make lots of movies,” Kennedy confirmed to Deadline during an extensive exit interview. “I want to do more movies, and I want the opportunity to get back to a kind of eclectic group of movies the way I used to. I’m looking forward to working with Frank [Marshall] again on some stuff. He has been doing lots of documentaries and having a ball. I’m also really interested in the new technology, I have to say.” The “new technology,” Kennedy clarifies, is generative AI.
“I am interested in exploring using those tools in responsible ways, and working out the complications around trying to figure out what we’re going to do in terms of protecting artists’ rights. That is vitally important,” Kennedy explained about her approach to AI in Hollywood. “But at the same time, there’s nothing more exciting than having new tools that can expand on what you’re capable of doing in terms of creating visual language around stories. I’ve had a unique opportunity to be around a lot of that over the years and witness those changes. I genuinely feel like we’re entering that moment again where we’re going to see things we’ve never seen before. I just think that’s really exciting.”
Why So Many People Are Against AI in Hollywood?
The resistance to generative artificial intelligence in the film industry is rooted in the belief that cinema is fundamentally an act of human expression. Detractors of the technology (this writer included) argue that movies and television shows are more than just products designed for a multibillion-dollar industry; they are works of art that derive their meaning from human experience. By removing the human element from the creative process, studios risk turning storytelling into a mechanical exercise in data processing. While studios keep pushing for cut costs and trying to force formulaic approaches to filmmaking, even without AI, art requires intentionality, subtext, and a perspective on the human condition that a machine simply cannot replicate. When these elements are automated, the resulting work often feels hollow.
Furthermore, generative AI systems, which are built on Large Language Models, function as probability machines rather than creative entities. These tools calculate the most likely satisfactory outcome to a user’s request by analyzing massive databases that contain almost everything previously created by humans. This means that generative AI is intrinsically limited to copying and rearranging what has come before, preventing it from creating something truly unique or subversive. In an industry that thrives on innovation, a reliance on probabilistic results also leads to a homogenization of content where diverse voices are often silenced in favor of an averaged-out aesthetic.
Despite these inherent shortcomings of generative AI, Kennedy maintains that the technology holds value for certain types of filmmaking. “I’m not saying that it impacts every single story you’re going to tell in cinema,” she posits. “But certainly for big tentpole stories where you’re trying to world-build and create images people haven’t seen before, I really believe this technology is going to do that.”
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