Los Angeles has handed the biggest show of its 2028 Olympics to one of Hollywood’s most powerful producers. Organisers LA28 announced on Wednesday that Kathleen Kennedy will be head of ceremonies and content, overseeing all four ceremonies: the openings and closings of both the Olympic and the Paralympic Games.
Kennedy ran Lucasfilm for 14 years until stepping down in January, steering the Star Wars saga through The Force Awakens, Rogue One and The Last Jedi. Earlier she co-founded Amblin with Steven Spielberg and Frank Marshall, now her husband, a partnership that gave audiences E.T. and Back to the Future. Over her career, films she worked on have earned 120 Academy Award nominations.
She steps into the job previously held by Peter Rice, the former Fox executive who has just become chief content officer at Netflix and will stay on at LA28 as an executive producer. Creative chief Ben Winston and Scott Givens, a seasoned hand at staging Olympic shows, will be at her side. LA28 chair Casey Wasserman called her “a legend” and said nobody was better placed to bring Hollywood magic to the Games.
For Kennedy the job is personal: she and Marshall have travelled to nearly every Games since the city’s last turn as host in 1984. The clock is ticking: the Games open on July 14, 2028, with an unusual twin ceremony split between the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.
On the same day LA28 revealed the motto for both Games: “Stars Align”. The appointment comes as LA28 and Wasserman face growing scrutiny over costs and other issues, making a crowd-pleasing opening night more important than ever.
