A major Star Wars power shift is upon us, but Dave Filoni has the Force to pull it off

Lucas chose Filoni for a reason

After 13 years as Lucasfilm’s president, it was only a matter of time before Kathleen Kennedy handed over the reins of Star Wars. Under the legendary producer, whose resume includes E.T., The Goonies, Back to the Future, and The Sixth Sense to name a few, Lucasfilm released five Star Wars feature films, from Rogue One to the sequel trilogy, as well as many live-action and animated series airing on Disney Plus. That’s not including several others set to release sometime in the future. Her tenure would wrap up with The Mandalorian & Grogu and next year’s Star Wars: Starfighter.

Rumors about who would replace Kennedy, however, have been circulating since Lucasfilm’s president's departure for years now, but according to Mathew Belloni of Puck News, the move is finally happening. Kennedy’s reported replacements are Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan.

“In the next week or two, Disney will finally confirm what we’ve all known for months: Kathleen Kennedy is indeed stepping down as Lucasfilm president, and Dave Filoni, currently the chief creative officer of the Star Wars unit, will be elevated into the top job.” Belloni writes.

Filoni will reportedly be joined by Lynwen Brennan, current president and general manager of Lucasfilm Business. However, for the foreseeable future, Filoni is said to be the decider on the “creative direction of the franchise in film, television, and any other platforms in the galaxy.”

Filoni stepping up to be in charge of Star Wars is no real surprise. The chief creative officer has long been credited as Lucas’s protégé, and the two worked together since 2005. Lucas and Filoni created the 2008 animated series The Clone Wars, and Filoni followed that up with the fan-favorite series Rebels. When Lucas moved on after selling Star Wars to Disney in 2012, Filoni remained a key player within Lucasfilm.

Despite Filoni being considered Lucas’s padawan, the news that he would be taking over from Kennedy has received a mixed reception from Star Wars fans. In 2025, Star Wars' most beloved project was, without a doubt, the award-winning Andor. Unlike Filoni’s Ahsoka, which received middling reviews at best, Tony Gilroy’s Andor was considered the cream of the crop, the best thing Star Wars has ever done. With such recent praise, it’s understandable why Filoni’s new job has made some fans nervous.

However, while Filoni has indeed made some questionable creative decisions — you will never convince me that Grogu coming back from his Jedi training with Luke after such a huge send-off was a good idea — I’d argue he has more successes under his belt than losses. Filoni’s work on The Clone Wars helped revitalize the perception of the prequel trilogy by expanding on a moment in history that Lucas’s films simply didn’t have the time for. Moreover, under Lucas’s guidance, Filoni introduced us to several iconic characters that new and old fans have fallen in love with over a decade of Star Wars material, the most popular being Ahsoka Tano.

Furthermore, while season 3 of The Mandalorian was notably (and justifiably) panned, its first two seasons — with Filoni serving as both executive producer and director — were easily some of the best Star Wars we’d ever watched. No longer did it all need to be about just Jedi and laser swords, but the seedy underbelly we only got a taste of in the original trilogy. In addition, The Mandalorian helped build on the foundations of the sequel trilogy by letting us glimpse into what came before it. With his work in adding and enhancing the prequel trilogy, what’s to stop Filoni from doing the same with the sequels?

Filoni takes flack for leaning too hard on nostalgia and failing to tackle the complex topics within Star Wars with the seriousness they deserve. I disagree! While not as adult-oriented as Gilroy’s Andor, The Mandalorian and Ahsoka explore topics such as political corruption in the New Republic, as well as the pardoning of war criminals of the Empire and their rehabilitation into society. These Star Wars stories dare to show what happens after the war is won. It isn’t just a typical ‘The good guys won, and the bad guys lost" situation. Filoni has tackled the nitty-gritty of a relatively peaceful time within the Star Wars timeline. That’s not to mention The Bad Batch, the sequel and spin-off to The Clone Wars that follows special task force Clone Force 99, aka the Bad Batch, which doesn’t shy away from child slavery and genocide. The fact that there are also moments of goofiness, brevity, and sweetness doesn’t make Filoni a terrible creative, it just shows he knows his audience. Because whether fans want to believe it or not, at its heart, Star Wars is for children.

Ultimately, what makes Filoni a valuable choice to take over from Kennedy is that the man knows and cares about the world of Star Wars. At times, that can be a hindrance — just look at the nostalgia bait of the sequel trilogy — but identifying and understanding the themes in Star Wars is vital to giving it direction, and that's something the franchise has been lacking for a very long time. Currently, Star Wars projects feel a lot like a scattershot, with some incredible successes like Andor, and misses like The Acolyte.

Filoni’s creative approach to addressing the prequels' faults shook up how we looked at these movies for the better. With The Clone Wars, fans got a glimpse into the lives of characters not just as heroes, but as people. He also introduced concepts like The World Between Worlds to keep the Star Wars universe fresh and open up new possibilities that, even now, haven’t been fully explored. And while Filoni is far from perfect, a few duds don’t necessarily mean his entire creative vision is one. If Filoni can continue to innovate and steer Star Wars in a new direction, which he has proven capable of doing before, then I, for one, remain hopeful for Star Wars’ future in his hands.