Star Wars film boss Kathleen Kennedy will ‘step down’ this year months after Elon Musk said she’d turned the franchise ‘woke’

Star Wars film boss Kathleen Kennedy will ‘step down’ this year months after Elon Musk said she’d turned the franchise ‘woke’. 

Kennedy told associates that she plans to retire by the end of the year, Puck reported last night.

She joined Lucasfilm in 2012 as co-chair alongside George Lucas, stepping up when Disney took over and Lucas left.

Elon Musk had last year attacked the Lucasfilm boss as a ‘franchise killer’ for pushing what he called a ‘woke’ agenda in The Acolyte.

Kennedy acknowledged the criticism of Star Wars’ direction in November, telling the New York Times that ‘women who step into Star Wars struggle’ with the expectation.

‘Because of the fan base being so male-dominated, they sometimes get attacked in ways that can be quite personal. My belief is that storytelling does need to be representative of all people,’ she said. ‘That’s an easy decision for me.’