Kathleen Kennedy, the former president of Lucasfilm, the studio behind the “Star Wars” franchise, has been selected to lead the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2028 summer Olympics in Los Angeles, the organizing committee said on Wednesday.
Kennedy, 73, led Lucasfilm for nearly 14 years and was George Lucas’s handpicked successor when Disney bought the studio in 2012. She oversaw the continuation of the “Star Wars” universe into new movies and television shows.
An eight-time Oscar nominee whose producing credits include “Lincoln” and “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” Kennedy stepped down from Lucasfilm earlier this year. She replaces Peter Rice, who recently took a top position at Netflix, as head of ceremonies and content for the Summer Games.
“Kathleen is a legend,” said Casey Wasserman, chairman of LA28, the local organizing committee of the Olympics. “She is one of Hollywood’s all-time greats, with a rare gift for storytelling. When the stars align to focus the world’s attention on Los Angeles for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, I can’t think of anyone better to conjure the magic of Hollywood than Kathleen.”
The opening ceremony for the Summer Olympics, scheduled for July 14, will be held simultaneously at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. The closing ceremony will be at the Coliseum on July 30.
As the top creative executive for the Olympics ceremonies, Kennedy replaced Rice, who was named the chief content officer at Netflix this month after the streaming service conducted mass layoffs and pushed out its former content chief, Bela Bajaria.
Rice, a former president of 21st Century Fox, will remain involved in the ceremonies as an executive producer.
“Casey Wasserman has a bold vision for what these Games can mean for Los Angeles and the world, and I’m thrilled he’s asked me to help bring it to life,” Kennedy said in a statement.
The opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Games in Paris was held along the Seine River, with performances by Celine Dion and Lady Gaga. The closing ceremony featured a symbolic handoff from Paris to Los Angeles, with the actor Tom Cruise jumping from the roof of Stade de France on a wire.
Organizers have said they are confident that the Games in Los Angeles, which also hosted the Olympics in 1984, will run smoothly despite challenges. The Games will cost close to $7 billion to stage and are expected to draw potentially millions of tourists.
Wasserman is the scion of a prominent Hollywood mogul and a major Democratic donor. This year, he sold the sports and entertainment agency that he founded after the Justice Department released documents including suggestive emails sent between him and Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime companion of Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender.
The emails were sent in 2003, more than a decade before Maxwell was also convicted of sex crimes, and Wasserman has remained in LA28 leadership despite calls for his resignation, including from Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles.
There are also concerns about transportation to venues and events given the traffic and congestion in the sprawling city.
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