Now that Disney is buying Lucasfilm for $4 billion in cash and stock, its founder and CEO George Lucas is heading for semi-retirement.
That means the next Star Wars movie, Episode VII, will be the responsibility of Kathleen Kennedy, who will take over as president of Lucasfilm. Kennedy will report directly to Disney and George Lucas will only serve as a creative advisor for the new movies.
In a video interview on StarWars.com, Kennedy said she has already started sitting down with writers to go over plots with writers for the next three films. Lucas has surrendered the treatments for Episodes VII through IX to Kennedy. But it seems like Kennedy and her creative team will get to make the final decisions.
And that's a good thing. Diehard Star Wars fans largely blamed George Lucas for the uninspiring prequel films that were released in the late 90s and early 2000s. With Lucas out of the picture, Kennedy can now hire fresh talent to make sure the new trilogy lives up to the standards set three decades ago.
Kennedy has the chops to do it too. She co-founded Amblin Entertainment along with Steven Spielberg in 1981 and went on to produce blockbusters like E.T., Jurassic Park, and Schindler's List.