{"id":392597,"date":"2026-01-27T06:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T06:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/392597\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T06:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T06:04:09","slug":"rian-johnson-and-kelly-marie-tran-react-to-kathleen-kennedy-leaving-lucasfilm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/392597\/","title":{"rendered":"Rian Johnson and Kelly Marie Tran React to Kathleen Kennedy Leaving Lucasfilm"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>During a panel at Sundance, Rian Johnson, who\u2019s out there promoting The Only Living Pickpocket in New York, which he produced, had some nice words about Kathleen Kennedy when asked about the executive\u2019s recent departure from her post as Lucasfilm President.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s what Johnson said when asked about her, <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2026\/film\/news\/rian-johnson-star-wars-new-stories-1236640553\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">as reported by Variety<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto lrv-a-font-body-m \">\u201cI love Kathy. I am excited now to see what she does next. As a Star Wars fan, the most exciting thing for me is always seeing when they bring in fresh voices and fresh filmmakers to come in and tell new stories in that world. That\u2019s what I am looking forward to seeing more happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Johnson himself was mentioned in Kennedy\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.starwarsnewsnet.com\/2026\/01\/kathleen-kennedy-officially-leaving-lucasfilm-dave-filoni-and-lynwen-brennan-to-take-over.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">exit interview with Deadline<\/a>, when Kennedy said that \u201cI do believe he got spooked by the online negativity\u201d (to which Johnson then <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/rianjohnson\/status\/2012393951450317237\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">responded<\/a> on Twitter \u201clol zero spooked, sorry\u201c). She also explained once again that Rian Johnson never got around to making the Star Wars trilogy he was announced to be making because he was busy making murder mysteries with Daniel Craig. As usual, however, when asked about this, Johnson said that he\u2019d still sign up for another ride in the Star Wars galaxy:<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had the time of my life doing it. I am now an even bigger Star Wars fan than I was when going into it. I would feel blessed if that were to ever happen [again].\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Also at Sundance, Kelly Marie Tran is promoting her new movie, Rock Springs, and also reacted to Kennedy\u2019s exit:<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe\u2019s had such an incredible career. To have someone who is not just a woman but who is so capable in that role for so long, and it\u2019s historic. I think that it\u2019s such a loss, but I am very happy for all the life changes she is making.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Kennedy left Lucasfilm a few days ago, leaving Lynwen Brennan and Dave Filoni as new co-Presidents.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"m-a-box-avatar-url\" href=\"https:\/\/www.starwarsnewsnet.com\/author\/miguel-fernandez\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769493849_828_956ea5f9537aa9061368a40b6ca36b7a.jpeg\"  class=\"avatar avatar-150 photo\" height=\"150\" width=\"150\" itemprop=\"image\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>                <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Miguel Fern\u00e1ndez is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings,\u00a0but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During a panel at Sundance, Rian Johnson, who\u2019s out there promoting The Only Living Pickpocket in New York,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,147766,2839,82461,2591,91103,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-392597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-kelly-marie-tran","tag-movies","tag-rian-johnson","tag-star-wars","tag-the-last-jedi","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}