Kathleen Kennedy gets roasted by Star Wars fans almost daily, but let’s be real, she’s actually fighting the good fight when it comes to real filmmaking. While Hollywood’s obsessed with AI doing the heavy lifting, Kennedy’s out there reminding everyone that tech is just a tool, not a storyteller. You need actual artists to make magic happen.
Say what you want about her Star Wars choices, but at least she’s not handing over the director’s chair to a chatbot.
Kathleen Kennedy on AI in Hollywood: The future still needs real artists
Kathleen Kennedy knows a thing or two about making Hollywood magic happen. With Star Wars, Jurassic Park, E.T., and Indiana Jones on her résumé, the industry veteran has spent over four decades shaping cinema.
And now, as the recipient of the 2025 ASC Board of Governors Award, she’s reminding everyone why real artists will always matter — even in an AI-driven future.
Kennedy, who’s overseen films raking in over $11 billion worldwide, accepted the honor on Feb. 23 at the ASC’s annual gala. Reflecting on her journey from a San Diego TV station to becoming one of Hollywood’s most influential producers, she shared her early love for film (via The ASC):
My introduction to falling in love with movies was probably initially focused more on the image than anything else…I became very interested in still photography in college — I spent many hours in the darkroom and loved working with black-and-white images — and that’s what led me into film. When I think about movies I love, it goes hand-in-hand with the imagery.
But even with decades of success, she’s not blind to Hollywood’s biggest conversation right now — AI. While many fear it, Kennedy takes a more balanced stance. She alluded,
We’re in such a weird and controversial period, a transitional period in technology. This is where I put on my producing hat, because I’m in favor of the efficiency side of things, but ‘efficiency’ is often seen as a bad code word for people losing their jobs and work going away.
Looking back at technology I’ve been part of, I find that it always replaces certain things and then, very quickly, something else fills the void. On shows like The Mandalorian, we have 25 to 30 people doing jobs that never existed five years ago.
While she acknowledges that efficiency is often seen as a threat to jobs, she also points out that innovation creates new opportunities. Her biggest takeaway was AI is just a tool, and artistry still matters. Kennedy said,
I’m very excited about the possibility of some of these new tools, and yet I understand the fear that lies underneath all of this. People have spent their time learning a craft that they think might go away, and they wonder whether they can find another path, and what that might be, as things are changing…
Because I’ve been intimately involved with visual effects my whole career, I know the people doing those jobs are not button-pushers — they’re artists. We need to understand that AI tools are only as good as the person using them. It’s not as though movies are going to be made by someone pushing a button — it’s going to remain a collaborative artform.
We’re just going to need some retraining and education. I hope we can see a real acceleration in training and teaching these tools, whether in traditional universities or something that the industry sets up [for working professionals].
Instead, she hopes for more industry-led training to help creatives evolve. Love her or hate her for Star Wars, Kathleen Kennedy is standing up for the real artists behind the screen.
Kathleen Kennedy’s Lucasfilm exit? Reports say yes, insiders say not so fast
According to a source familiar with her plans, the longtime Lucasfilm president intends to step down by the end of 2025.
However, a separate source close to Kennedy shut down the chatter, calling it “pure speculation” and insisting nothing has been decided (as reported by Variety).
A defining figure in Hollywood, she took over Lucasfilm in 2012, spearheading Disney’s Star Wars revival with The Force Awakens, which smashed the box office with over $2 billion.
Of course, it wasn’t all lightspeed ahead. Solo flopped, directors got swapped mid-shoot, and some hyped-up projects never took off. The movies hit a wall after The Rise of Skywalker, but Disney+ kept things alive with The Mandalorian and Andor.
Beyond the galaxy far, far away, Kennedy’s got an insane legacy.
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