The Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter: June 13, 2025
Somehow...President Skroob has returned.
Hello there
Welcome back again to the Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. We’ve got some news this week! Dave Filoni is probably going to take Kathleen Kennedy’s job at some point. Star Wars: Starfighter gets a new villain. And we get confirmation that most anticipated sequel in movie history, is in fact going to happen.
As always, thanks for reading. If you’re not a subscriber, now’s the perfect time to smash that subscribe button and get Death Star HR in your inbox every Friday.
This Is Where The Fun Begins
For those of you who are not deep into the Substack Cinematic Universe, there’s a feature called Notes which is basically Substack’s version of Twitter before Twitter turned into the dumpster fire that it is today. People share their work, argue about AI, and post pictures of their pets. Yesterday, friend of Death Star HR and fellow Michigander
posted this:I always knew my life was missing something. I just didn’t know it was this shirt.
The Real Heir(s) to the Empire Emerge
Earlier this year, the Star Wars internet was set abuzz when it was rumored that Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy would be stepping down from her roll. The rumors, first reported in Puck, stated Kennedy was leaving at the end of the year.
Not a huge shock, of course. Kennedy will be 72 in June, and the legendary movie producer will have run Lucasfilm for 13 years as George Lucas’s handpicked steward under Disney. Kathy was actually planning to leave last year, I’m told, and had even set up an exit interview with a journalist, but she decided to stay for one more year.
Kennedy almost immediately denied the reports and quickly sat down with a friendly journalist to let everyone know that she wasn’t going to retire but was talking about who would replace her.
The truth is, and I want to just say loud and clear, I am not retiring. I will never retire from movies. I will die making movies. That is the first thing that’s important to say. I am not retiring. What’s happening at Lucasfilm is I have been talking for quite some time with both Bob and Alan about what eventual succession might look like.
That was quite a comment. I’m not retiring but I’m talking about my succession plan. Look, both things can be true. Kennedy can say she’s getting her successor lined up and not actually retire from the movie business, even if she’s not longer president of Lucasfilm.
Well, that was late February/early March and after her interview with Deadline, it seemed like everything calmed down. I’m sure the Mouse House didn’t want anything distracting from the upcoming season of Andor. Now that Andor is over and there’s really nothing big on the calendar until The Mandalorian and Grogu next year, it’s time to get back to what’s the deal with Kathleen Kennedy’s job?
Well, The Hollywood Reporter had a big piece last week on the various machinations and jockeying for the coveted CEO roles in Hollywood. Their first suggestion is that Kennedy will remain in her role until current Disney CEO Bob Iger steps down:
Meanwhile, some top jobs remain up for grabs — at Disney, of course, but also at subsidiary Lucasfilm, where accomplished-yet-controversial CEO Kathleen Kennedy is expected to end her reign shortly after Iger ends his.
OK, calling Kennedy controversial is technically correct. I don’t know, I don’t have any data to prove this but if you polled 1,000 Normie and asked them to name the Lucasfilm president, how many could actually name Kathleen Kennedy? And even if they could name her, how many would have a strong opinion about it? Of course if you swim the Sicko circles, as I have to occasionally dabble in as someone who writes a Star Wars newsletter, you’ll find lots of people have #HOTTAKES about Kennedy. It’s no different than any other hobby, when I was into homebrewing, there were plenty of people with very strong opinions about say, the proper hops for brewing an ESB. Or the difference between an American Pale Ale and an IPA. And heaven help you if you were alive for the hazy IPA wars of the mid 2010’s. Pick a hobby, there’s always going to be a group of guys (and they’re almost always guys) who are extremely online and extremely loud. According to them, Kennedy is the destroyer of Star Wars. She fired the Death Star laser into their childhood and everything they hold dear.
Also per Tony Gilroy she made sure Andor happened and gave him a free hand to make the series as he wanted to without studio interference, but we don’t need to let facts get in the way.
At the risk of doing a #BOTHSIDES, something I hate doing, there is legitimate criticism of Kennedy and by extension Disney’s handling of Star Wars. It’s like The Last Jedi and The Acolyte. There are things that are good (or very good in the case of The Last Jedi) and there are things that I don’t like. But any legitimate criticism gets bogged down among all the complaining about Grumpy Luke and Lesbian Space Witches.
Eventually Disney is going to have to replace Kennedy though. I mean, unless she’s secretly Darth Plagueis? Generally speaking though, the Grim Reaper is undefeated. And who would get her sweet job? The man who loves an Easter egg almost as much as he loves cowboy hats.
Despite speculation about outside candidates, including former 20th Century head Emma Watts, insiders say the company seems most likely to promote from within. The current thinking is a scenario where chief creative officer Dave Filoni and production head Carrie Beck — both Lucasfilm vets — take co-head roles. Even as an arm of Disney, Lucasfilm remains, in many ways, a family business, and as a George Lucas protégé Filoni long has been considered a golden boy.
Let’s be honest, who else was it going to be? Filoni was promoted at the end of 2023 to Chief Creative Officer. Which certainly sounds like a step towards being the President or co-President of Lucasfilm. He’s been in the Star Wars family since 2008, working his way up. He created Ahsoka, both the character and the TV show, and clearly loves Star Wars. Per his Wikipedia page, he dressed up as Plo Koon for the premiere of Revenge of the Sith. He’s pretty clearly got the resume.
Of course, and there’s always an of course, loving Star Wars too much is seen by some as a negative.
But the knock against him is that he might be too steeped in Star Wars lore and risks steering a show into dense mythology that loses a broader audience. “He’s not the Andor guy, he’s the Ahsoka guy,” says one Disney insider. Beck, who joined the company in 2012, knows the ins and outs, but neither she nor Filoni has much film experience, which could be mitigated by Kennedy’s continued presence as a producer on certain Star Wars projects, ensuring quality control in the short term.
I get that Andor and Rogue One were triumphs of story telling, characters, sets, and all ready giving a depth to a Star Wars story we’ve really never seen before. As I am contractually obligated to say every time I mention Andor, it was a grim warning fascism we chose to ignore. Andor was like nothing else we’ve seen before in Star Wars and raised the bar about what serious, mature, storytelling can be in the Star Wars universe. And you know what, it’s a big galaxy. There’s room for serious stories like Andor and not-so-serious stories like Young Jedi Adventures. That’s what is great about Star Wars, it offers something for everyone.
I realize that I’ve left out Carrie Beck here. Partly because I really don’t know anything about her and partly because when you put her name into a search engine, you don’t get a bunch of Reddit threads about how she’s ruined Star Wars. Although I would expect if/when she is promoted to a more public facing role, attitudes toward her will change.
And finally, you’re deluding yourself if you thought anyone other than Dave Filoni was going to get the job. It was always going to be Dave Filoni. It was his destiny.
“Mia Goth” is Your Newest Star Wars Baddie
I have no idea who Mia Goth is but I am going to assume that is not her real name her name actually is Mia Goth, what do you know. I probably should figure out what her deal is since she is going to be in Star Wars: Starfighter.
Mia Goth has joined Ryan Gosling in Star Wars: Starfighter, the feature from director Shawn Levy.
Gosling is leading the new feature project, which is expected to begin production this fall in England. It is scheduled to open May 28, 2027.
Details on the project are scant, but it does involve Gosling playing a character that must protect a young charge against evil pursuers.
Goth will play one of the pursuers. It is the same role that Mikey Madison had been circling before her deal blew up like a Death Star — over money matters.
We still don’t know a whole lot about the movie. It has Gosling and Goth, Shawn Levy is directing, it takes place after Rise of Skywalker, and…deep sigh…Gosling has to protect a young child from “evil pursuers.”
My goal at Death Star HR is to be positive. There’s a lot of negativity in the world right now as we’ve got a potential Ghorman Massacre waiting to play out, and there’s (as always) a lot of negativity as people complain that Tony Gilroy isn’t taking Kathleen Kennedy’s job. Look, I am not going to get down on a project before the script has even better written. Clearly I am going to be at Starfighter opening night. But can we find another plotline besides older and/or wiser mentor has to protect a “young charge?” Maybe it’s just recency bias since we just had Ventress and a random Padawn in Tales of the Underworld. There was Jude Law and the kids in Skeleton Crew. There was Obi-Wan and a young Leia in Obi-Wan Kenobi. There was (at least in part) Sol and Osha in The Acolyte. And of course, the O.G. of protecting the Youngling shows in the Disney canon, The Mandalorian.
I’m not pre-judging the movie, but maybe just maybe we could try something new?
Q: When Will Then Be Now?
A: Soon.
It’s funny, on Wednesday I was texting with a friend of my, the crazy old hermit who lives past the Jundland Wastes AKA outside of the Dallas city limits, and he made a random and passing reference to mega maid. If course I had to respond with “she’s gone from suck to blow” and then we continued talking about whatever it is we were. And then yesterday, the teaser trailer for Spaceballs 2 is released. I’m not saying I had anything to do with it, I’m not saying my buddy and I manifested the trailer through the will of the Force. But I’m not not saying it either.
At the time of me finishing up this week’s Death Star HR, the video had almost 500,000 views. Sure that’s nothing compared to say, the new Sabrina Carpenter video, but as a sequel to a 38 year old movie with no new footage, it’s pretty good. No real details other than it’s confirmed and coming out in 2027, which will be the 40th anniversary of the film.
Details about the movie are pretty slim. It has been confirmed that Rick Moranis and Bill Pullman will be back as Dark Helmet and Lone Star along with Brooks himself back as Yogurt. And maybe President Skroob? No word if Daphne Zuniga will return as Princess Vespa. Keke Palmer and Lewis Pullman are playing a yet-to-be named characters as well. Josh Gad will co-star and co-produce as well.
Worth nothing that Moranis passed on returning for any of the new Ghostbusters movies but is coming back for Spaceballs 2.
No word if the movie will be titled Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money, or as Rick Moranis suggested, Spaceballs III, the Search for Spaceballs II. Also worth noting that Mel Brooks turns 99 in a couple weeks. He looks pretty good in the little clip there, but please film his scenes first.
Great Moments in Star Wars Merchandising
I feel like with the Spaceballs 2 trailer, it was pretty much mandatory to have a “Great Moments in Star Wars Merchandising” entry this week.
As someone who is is not old, but not young, I remember button makers at school. Is that still a thing? Seems like now the style is the enamel pins.
Real life friend and mysterious droid only known as “V1-EDO FL0” found a box of movie pins and set aside the Star Wars ones for me. I put the “Han Shot First” and the “Death Star tech support” on my backpack. If only it said “Death Star Human Resources.”
This Day in Star Wars History
Two births to mention on this Friday the June 13th.
Artist and designer Ralph McQuarrie was born in 1929. George Lucas hired McQuarrie to come up with concept art to help him pitch the movie to studios. I don’t think it’s an understatement to say that similar to James Earl Jones providing Vader’s voice and John Williams providing the music, without McQuarrie designs, Star Wars wouldn’t be Star Wars as we know it.
English actor Malcolm McDowell was born in 1943. Best known for playing Alex in A Clockwork Orange, McDowell had two episode arc in Rebels. He voiced Veris Hydan, an Imperial working in the Ministry for Antiquity, Hydan attempted to understand the Mortis Gods and the World Between Worlds.
From the Depths of Wookieepedia
This one probably would have been better around Halloween, but hey, the Wookieepedia randomizer does not care what the date is. Although I guess Friday the 13th kind of works. Because this week we’ve got the Undead Trooper. I have always been a little surprised Star Wars doesn’t include more horror elements in its storytelling. These guys would work.
Originally introduced in the Legends novel Death Troopers, these undead Stormtroopers were canonized with the mobile game “Command.” Eventually they were renamed Undead Troopers since A) it really is more accurate and B) someone decided the all-black Stormtroopers you see at the beginning of Rogue One now got to be Death Troopers.
News From the HoloNet
No One in the Movies Stays Dead Anymore
Not a Star Wars specific article, but it is settled Death Star HR law that the dead should stay dead.
Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy says COVID "saved" the critically acclaimed Star Wars series
One good thing from COVID, I guess?
I am tempted to post the AI picture I did a while ago of a group of lawyers wearing Mouse ears and holding red-bladed lightsabers, but that might get me included in the lawsuit.
‘It was simply mind-blowing’: readers remember seeing Star Wars for the first time
One of the people who responded became an engineer at ILM. So cool.
That’s it for this week. If you like what I’m doing, please subscribe. I’ll catch you next week, and may the Force be with you.
It would be nice to just get back to dumb silly comedies. I’m here for it.
I’d expect Filoni to be a much better CEO & producer than he actually is at making things.