re: Bloomberg - Star Wars Is Struggling to Win Over the Next Generation of Kids

quote:

---

Lucas knew it was time to do something else—but not before he left his baby in capable hands. At first he struggled to come up with a successor. “I racked my brain to figure out who do I trust and who do I know really well and is level-headed, who understands the business side of it but also understands the creative side of it,” he says. “And finally I banged into it and said, ‘Oh, my God, it’s Kathy.’?”

To Lucas, Kennedy’s ability to maneuver through studio circles while maintaining high artistic standards may have even surpassed that of his old friend Spielberg. “Steven became powerful enough to where he was pretty much left alone,” says Lucas. “I mean, he never really exercised his power as far as I was concerned, but Kathy learned how to navigate that world very, very well.”

In Lucas’s own mind at least, the decision was made. When he invited Kennedy to meet for lunch in New York in April 2012, he asked her if she knew he’d been toying with the idea of retiring. “I thought he wanted to ask me to come up with some names for him,” recalls Kennedy. Once she realized he was offering her the job, she almost agreed on the spot. Lucas, though, first had to call Spielberg. “He wasn’t technically her boss—it was just about friendship,” Lucas says. “It was kind of like, ‘Oh, by the way, Steven, I’m going to marry your wife.’?” (Lucas says Spielberg was initially in shock but came around quickly. Spielberg says he appreciated the gesture.)

By June 2012, Kennedy was named co-chair of Lucasfilm, initially running the studio alongside its founder. She barely had time to settle in, however, before another big shift came along. Unbeknownst to Kennedy, Lucas was already in talks to sell Lucasfilm to Disney. (He had likewise kept Disney in the dark while negotiating with Kennedy.) His original intention had been to stay on for a few years, as his successor transitioned into the company. He would then release the first film in the new trilogy and sell it off, with her at the helm. But, he says, things moved much faster than anticipated. Lucas, who was about to get married to his second wife and was entertaining the idea of having another baby, was eager to escape the daily grind of running a business. “I realized that I could hold on the extra two years, and maybe make another billion dollars,” he says. “But at that point, when I was 68, I said, ‘Time is more important to me than money.’?”

By December, the deal was done: Disney had acquired Lucasfilm, Lucas had stepped down, and Kennedy was now president—working for a new boss, Iger.

---