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Dave Filoni And Lynwen Brennan Are Tapped As The New Heads Of Lucasfilm
Courtesy of Lucasfilm
After fourteen years, Academy Award-winning producer Kathleen Kennedy is stepping down as President of Lucasfilm, handing the lightsaber to two longtime lieutenants: EVP and Chief Creative Officer Dave Filoni, and Lucasfilm Business President & GM Lynwen Brennan.
The Big Picture: With the Skywalker Saga over (for now, at least), all eyes are on the new creative direction of the Star Wars franchise. Filoni (a Lucas mentee known as the keeper of all Star Wars lore) and Brennan (who was instrumental in building out VFX division Industrial Light & Magic) may not have much experience developing projects for the big screen, but they do know the Star Wars universe inside and out.
Behind The Scenes: Lucasfilm has a new Jedi Council charting the future of the Star Wars franchise, with Filoni taking on the role of President and Chief Creative Officer and Brennan being named Co-President.
Kennedy will step down this week to pursue independent producing projects (prior to taking over Lucasfilm, she was a longtime producer for Steven Spielberg). She will continue producing Lucasfilm’s two upcoming movies: Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian & Grogu and Shawn Levy’s Star Wars: Starfighter.
Filoni was long rumored to be the obvious successor to Kennedy. Beloved for his work across the animated shows, he also created Ahsoka, wrote and directed episodes of The Mandalorian, and penned the upcoming The Mandalorian & Grogu movie.
Brennan is best known as Lucasfilm’s chief business operator, overseeing its slate of blockbuster productions, the expansion of ILM, and the widespread adoption of volumetric StageCraft technology.
The Final Order: Kennedy was handpicked by George Lucas himself to command the company that brought audiences all things Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Just months after she took the post, Disney acquired Lucasfilm for $4 billion — placing her squarely under the biggest spotlight in Hollywood…
…a challenge she immediately rose with The Force Awakens (still the highest-grossing movie in North America) and The Mandalorian (the flagship show at Disney+’s launch). While the company has faced many public creative struggles, nearly all of its movies have been big financial and critical successes, and its shows have racked up 85 Emmy nominations.
The Force has never not been strong with Kennedy.
Next Adventure: With the transition putting development on hold at Lucasfilm over the past year, expect a tidal wave of upcoming announcements that reflect Filoni’s tastes — off-the-beaten-path stories rooted in his favorite corners of franchise lore.
Together with Vanta
State Of Trust: AI-Driven Attacks Are Getting More Sophisticated
AI-driven attacks are getting bigger, faster, and more sophisticated — making risk much more difficult to contain. Without automation to respond quickly to AI threats, teams are forced to react without a plan in place.
This is according to Vanta’s newest State of Trust report, which surveyed 3,500 business and IT leaders across the globe.
One big change since last year’s report? Teams falling behind AI risks — and spending way more time and energy proving trust than building it.
61% of leaders spend more time proving security rather than improving it.
59% note that AI risks outpace their expertise.
But 95% say AI is making their security teams more effective.
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited, Polled, & Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.