Sayonara, Star Wars

PRESENTED BY VANTA

Happy Friday, Future Party. Somehow, it’s already another long weekend. Is it just us, or is this month flying by at lightspeed? Speaking of lightspeed…

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.

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.

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.

Get the full report to learn how organizations are navigating these changes, and what early adopters are doing to stay ahead.

Democratic Representative Ro Khanna, who represents the district comprising Silicon Valley, is readying to introduce a House resolution that would grant digital creators special labor protections.

Why It Influences: Khanna’s “Creator Bill of Rights” wouldn’t immediately give creators broad employment protections, but would instead act as a policy roadmap for advancing federal legislation. With roughly 1.5 million full-time digital creators in the US working within a $250 billion global industry dominated by a handful of uber-powerful tech giants, Khanna sees the resolution as a necessary step to making content creation a sustainable career.

Behind The Call: Crafted in conjunction with Creators 4 Mental Health founder and CEO Shira Lazar, the Creator Bill of Rights calls for policies aimed at alleviating many of creators’ biggest headaches.

Final Draft: While these asks will likely get a lot of pushback from the very rich and highly influential companies that control these platforms, creator rights have emerged as a rare bipartisan issue — both sides of the aisle are increasingly vying to win over the digital creator class (why do you think the TikTok ban ultimately failed?). With a Morning Consult survey finding that nearly half of Gen Z believe their “ideal career” would be becoming a content creator, there may be no resolution more closely watched by young voters than this one.

The Future: While Congress could potentially legislate many of the issues facing creators, many will likely need to be addressed through union representation. SAG-AFTRA and the WGA are already working to organize creators, so expect that union push to go into overdrive this year.

34.1% of you voted Never in yesterday’s poll: How often do you use Reddit?

“I prefer Instagram Threads for scrolling and reading people’s opinions — it’s waaaayyyy more positive than Reddit. Reddit has more experts on the subjects I research, so I use it more as an informational site.”

“When researching something I want to buy, I usually look it up on Google and filter for Reddit results. This helps me figure out whether the CC cream I’ve been eyeing will give me allergies or actually match my complexion.”

“As a retired personal trainer and gym manager — and the owner of a shed gym — I joined the Home Gym and Garage Gym Reddits when I first discovered Reddit, and I find them useful for helping newbies exercise correctly and choose good equipment.”

“It’s the most honest place on the internet.”

Let’s keep the conversation going. Join our Poll Of The Day newsletter, so your opinions can shine. Discover how your views line up with your peers’, check out cool insights, and have some fun. It’s data with personality.

🏓 Timothée Chalamet’s full-court marketing press for A24’s Marty Supreme has been a big win — the movie will likely be the highest-grossing drama of the year.

🎥 Netflix has struck a first-of-its-kind $7 billion deal with Sony to be the first platform to stream the studio’s movies worldwide.

🎞️ David Linde, the former CEO of Participant Media and chairman of Universal Pictures, has been named the next CEO of the Sundance Institute.

💰 Amazon is buying the first batch of newly produced copper in the US in over a decade to help build its data centers.

🤖 Google announced that users can opt in to allow Gemini to access information across all of the Google apps they use.

👀 X says that Grok will no longer allow users to generate pornographic deepfakes of real people.

💸 Bitmine Immersion Technologies, the biggest ethereum treasury in the world, is investing $200 million in MrBeast’s Beast Industries.

🤳 YouTube is changing its algorithm to allow greater monetization for accounts that cover controversial topics.

📱 TikTok believes the next major trend on the platform will be users going on “curiosity detours” — aka falling down internet rabbit holes.