Lucasfilm's New Era Officially Begins
Hyperspace Theories
On January 15, 2026, Lucasfilm that Kathleen Kennedy is “stepping down” as president of the company. Dave Filoni will take on the role of President and Chief Creative Officer. Lynwen Brennan, who for the past two years has held the title of “President & General Manager, Lucasfilm Business” alongside Kennedy, will continue in that role as “Co-President” with Filoni. On this episode of Hyperspace Theories, recorded days later, Tricia Barr and B.J. Priester discuss the implications of this long-anticipated transition in the highest levels of Lucasfilm’s leadership. We...
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Two 2025 Superhero Movies Show Star Wars' Missed Path
Hyperspace Theories
The year 2025 marked the sixth without a new Star Wars movie in theaters since The Rise of Skywalker concluded the Sequel Trilogy. In the past few years, the Marvel Cinematic Universe and DC superhero films have struggled with consistency at reaching their prior levels of box-office earnings and fan satisfaction. We found it interesting, then, that two 2025 superhero movies – the MCU’s rebooted The Fantastic Four: First Steps and DC’s new iteration of Superman – showcased several prominent storytelling elements that we wish Lucasfilm had been able to...
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Wicked For Good
Hyperspace Theories
A year after Part I, the Wicked movie franchise returns with For Good, an adaptation of the second act of the Broadway musical. In this episode of Hyperspace Theories, Tricia Barr and B.J. Priester examine how Wicked: For Good takes advantage of the movie format, and the passage of time since the original musical was written, to strengthen the character arcs of Elphaba, Glinda, and Fiyero in tandem with the story’s themes. Like Part I, For Good also maximizes the opportunity to include locations, action sequences, and other visual elements which...
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K-Pop Demon Hunters: Evolving Myth
Hyperspace Theories
In a matter of weeks, the Sony-produced animated movie K-Pop Demon Hunters became the all-time most-viewed original title on Netflix. A limited-release theatrical run of the sing-along version of the film, for two days on fewer than two thousand screens after it had been available on streaming for two months, was the #1 movie at the box office for that weekend. With four songs in the Billboard Hot 100 chart, including “Golden” reaching #1, K-Pop Demon Hunters has attained soundtrack feats not seen since Purple Rain (1984) and Saturday Night...
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ANDOR's Point of View
Hyperspace Theories
For our third episode of Hyperspace Theories podcast discussing the second season of Andor, Tricia Barr and B.J. Priester examine how the series portrays characterization through the use of point of view in its writing and visual imagery. Although prose fiction Star Wars usually relies upon third-person limited storytelling, only revealing to the reader what the characters themselves know or understand, cinematic Star Wars sometimes gives the impression of a third-person omniscient perspective, with the audience as an external observer watching a "true" version of events unfold. In Andor,...
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Bad Luck Ghorman: ANDOR & History
Hyperspace Theories
On the latest episode of Hyperspace Theories, Tricia Barr and B.J. Priester continue their analysis of Season Two of the Disney+ streaming series Andor: A Star Wars Story with a discussion centered on the Ghorman storyline heavily featured across Episodes 4 to 8 and culminating in the eighth episode focused entirely on the the tragedy of the Ghorman Massacre. One major theme of this storyline is the power of propaganda, introduced in the first Imperial scenes of the season’s first episode. We then consider other forms of Imperial manipulation of the events on Ghorman, and the...
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One Year Later: ANDOR Kicks Off Season 2
Hyperspace Theories
Beginning immediately on the heels of Star Wars Celebration Japan 2025, the second season of the Disney+ streaming series Andor, now carrying the same A Star Wars Story subtitle as Rogue One, kicked off its four-week run with its first trio of episodes. The premiere and its title, "One Year Later," sets the framework for Season Two: as each "a movie a week" batch of three episodes brings us a year closer to Rogue One, several interweaving plots advance the characters arcs of Andor's expansive cast. On this episode of Hyperspace Theories podcast, Tricia Barr and B.J. Priester analyze the...
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Star Wars Celebration Japan
Hyperspace Theories
On the latest episode of Hyperspace Theories podcast, hosts Tricia Barr and B.J. Priester report from Star Wars Celebration Japan on the latest news and happenings. Highlights from key panels - The Mandalorian and Grogu, Andor Season 2, Ahsoka, Star Wars Animation 25th Anniversary - are discussed. Let's celebrate Star Wars!
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The Curious Case of Kathleen Kennedy's Retirement
Hyperspace Theories
On this episode of Hyperspace Theories podcast, Tricia Barr and B.J. Priester detour from our usual focus on fictional storytelling to discuss an instance of real-world events and surrounding narratives in the form of journalistic coverage of the upcoming retirement of Kathleen Kennedy from her current role as president of Lucasfilm. On February 24, 2025, experienced Hollywood journalist Matt Belloni at Puck reported that “Kathleen Kennedy has informed Disney, as well as friends and associates, that she will exit as Lucasfilm president by the end of the year, per three sources.”...
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Hyperspace Theories: SKELETON CREW Ahoy!
Hyperspace Theories
Ahoy, mateys! Pirates, pirate ships, and a search for lost treasure have returned to Star Wars – and so has the familiar story structure, complete with a boring home planet (A New Hope) and ten-year-old (The Phantom Menace) protagonists flung into a very unexpected adventure in the wider galaxy. On this episode of Hyperspace Theories, Tricia Barr and B.J. Priester examine the first four episodes of Skeleton Crew to unpack the story structure, character arcs, and themes unfolding in the first half of the new Disney+ streaming series. Although the story structure of Skeleton...
info_outlineOn January 15, 2026, Lucasfilm formally announced that Kathleen Kennedy is “stepping down” as president of the company. Dave Filoni will take on the role of President and Chief Creative Officer. Lynwen Brennan, who for the past two years has held the title of “President & General Manager, Lucasfilm Business” alongside Kennedy, will continue in that role as “Co-President” with Filoni.
On this episode of Hyperspace Theories, recorded days later, Tricia Barr and B.J. Priester discuss the implications of this long-anticipated transition in the highest levels of Lucasfilm’s leadership. We begin with a brief recap of the other Star Wars news stories in the preceding ten days, which had implicitly suggested that a major change would be imminent. We then unpack the press release from Lucasfilm, and what it represents as an official communication from a division of a publicly traded multi-national corporation. Next, we consider the additional information provided by source journalistic reporting from the major Hollywood trade publications – Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and The Wrap – as well as Matthew Belloni at Puck, who has consistently broken accurate stories about the extended leadership succession process at Lucasfilm. Then we examine the further remarks from Kennedy herself, provided in an “exit interview” she conducted with Deadline, another longstanding Hollywood publication. Finally, we end this episode of the podcast with our brief predictions about the likely future announcements from the new leadership team about the projects they have underway for the future of Star Wars.
Media Coverage Links:
- Lucasfilm and the Walt Disney Studios Announce Leadership Transition (StarWars.com; Jan. 15, 2026)
- Lucasfilm Replacing Kathleen Kennedy With Dave Filoni, Lynwen Brennan as New ‘Star Wars’ Bosses (Brett Lang, Variety; Jan. 15, 2026)
- Star Wars Shake-Up: Kathleen Kennedy Steps Down as George Lucas Protégé Dave Filoni, Exec Lynwen Brennan Take Over Lucasfilm (Aaron Couch & Borys Kit, The Hollywood Reporter; Jan. 15, 2026)
- A Shift In The Force For Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy: The Exit Interview (Mike Fleming Jr., Deadline; Jan. 15, 2026)
- Kathleen Kennedy’s Final Episode (Matthew Belloni, Puck; Jan. 16, 2026)
- Kathleen Kennedy’s Lucasfilm Legacy: A Galaxy in Disarray | Analysis (Drew Taylor, The Wrap; Jan. 16, 2026)
- Star Wars Has New Hope (and Some Growing Pains) in Its Future (Richard Newby, The Hollywood Reporter; Jan. 16, 2026)
- 20 Surefire, 100 Percent Probable Hollywood Predictions for 2026 (Part One) (Matthew Belloni, Puck; Jan. 6, 2026)
- Kathleen Kennedy to Step Down at Lucasfilm (Matthew Belloni, Puck; Feb. 5, 2025)
FANgirl Blog Links:
- Star Wars Celebration Japan 2025: Perspective and Takeaways (May 2025)
- Hyperspace Theories: The Curious Case of Kathleen Kennedy’s Retirement (Mar. 2025)
- Ten Years of Hyperspace Theories (Oct. 2024)
- Lessons in Franchise Management – MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios (Jan. 2024)
- Hyperspace Theories: Starting 2024 with the Future of Star Wars (Jan. 2024)
- The Stories Told By White Men Rise to the Top at the Lucasfilm Showcase: Star Wars Celebration Anaheim 2022 (June 2022)
- The Failures of The Rise of Skywalker, Part 6 (Jan. 2020)
- Comparing Two Fresh Starts: Captain Marvel and Star Wars (July 2019)
- Star Wars Celebration 2019: The Franchise Talking Points (May 2019)
- We’ve Been Here Before: Parallels in the Public Narrative on the State of Star Wars (June 2018)
- Rey At Risk Revisited: The Danger Signs From The Last Jedi (Feb. 2018)
- Skywalker At Risk: Serial Storytelling and Brand Value (Feb. 2018)
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