Seminar Plan: Franchise Management — Lessons from Star Wars Leadership Changes

Hook: Teach franchise management with a living case study — and stop hunting scattered resources

Students, teachers, and lifelong learners struggle to find a single, reliable framework that connects executive choices to audience outcomes. If you teach media management or run a class on content strategy, the rapid leadership change at Lucasfilm in early 2026 — with Kathleen Kennedy stepping down and Dave Filoni elevated to co-president — offers a timely, high-engagement case for a module-based seminar on franchise management.

This seminar plan turns headline friction into structured learning: how leaders shape creative strategy, how fans react (and why), and how media strategy translates to measurable business outcomes. It bundles lecture plans, hands-on activities, tool recommendations, and assessment rubrics so instructors can stop stitching fragmented articles together and deliver a focused, research-backed course in 2026.

Executive summary: Why this seminar matters in 2026

The entertainment industry in 2026 is defined by fast fan feedback loops, streaming-first release strategies, AI-assisted content pipelines, and increased scrutiny of franchise stewardship. Lucasfilm’s leadership shift — popularly summarized in headlines like

"The New Filoni-Era List Of ‘Star Wars’ Movies Does Not Sound Great" — Forbes (Jan 2026)

creates a perfect pedagogical opportunity: students examine a high-profile franchise while practicing the tools and frameworks studios use to forecast risk, design creative slates, and measure fan reaction. The seminar trains learners to think like studio strategists, creative executives, and community managers — all roles facing the same core challenge: balancing artistic vision, brand equity, and shareholder/box-office realities.

Seminar overview: Learning outcomes & structure

Course length: 10–12 weeks (modifiable to a concentrated 3-day intensive). Target audiences: undergraduate/graduate media management students, continuing education programs for media professionals.

By the end of the seminar, students will be able to:

• Analyze how executive leadership decisions shape franchise strategy and IP stewardship.
• Design a multi-year franchise roadmap that balances creative vision with commercial constraints.
• Measure fan reception using qualitative and quantitative methods (social listening, sentiment scoring, viewership metrics).
• Present actionable media strategies for distribution, monetization, and community management.

Module-by-module breakdown (core syllabus)

Each module includes learning objectives, required readings, class activities, assessment tasks, and recommended tools.

Module 1 — Context & timeline: Evolution of Star Wars leadership to 2026

Objective: Build historical grounding for executive influence on franchise direction.

• Lecture topics: Lucasfilm history, studio governance, the Kennedy era (2012–2026), Filoni’s trajectory from animation to live-action leadership.
• Readings: press coverage (Jan 2026 transition stories), interviews with Dave Filoni, critical pieces on the sequel trilogy and post-2019 slowdown.
• Activity: Create a timeline mapping executive changes to major creative beats (films, series, publishing, theme parks, games).
• Deliverable: 2-page annotated timeline with citations (graded on accuracy and linkage between leadership action and output).

Module 2 — Executive influence on creative strategy

Objective: Translate leadership profile into creative decision-making frameworks.

• Lecture topics: creative autonomy vs. corporate oversight; greenlight criteria; auteur vs. franchise-led decision models.
• Case study: Compare decisions under Kennedy (broad slate expansion, high-profile directors) vs. initial Filoni-era signals (TV-driven continuity, creator-led projects).
• Activity: Students simulate a greenlight meeting using role-play (studio CFO, creative lead, marketing, fan community rep).
• Assessment: Position paper (1,000 words) recommending a slate mix (theatrical, streaming, games) with justification based on risk/return analysis.

Module 3 — Fan reaction: Measuring and interpreting audience response

Objective: Teach students to combine social listening with traditional metrics to assess fan sentiment.

• Lecture topics: sentiment analysis, memetic spread, fandom segmentation (casual vs. hardcore), organized fandoms and campaign dynamics.
• Tools: Brandwatch, Talkwalker, YouTube Analytics, Google Trends, Reddit data exports, Box Office Mojo, Parrot Analytics (2026 updates), and open-source Python packages for sentiment (VADER, transformers for NLP).
• Activity: Live exercise — analyze fan reaction to a 2025–2026 announcement (e.g., Filoni-era slate reveal). Produce a 5-slide dashboard showing sentiment trajectory and risk flags.
• Deliverable: Dashboard plus short memo recommending three immediate community actions (e.g., transparency update, behind-the-scenes content, fan Q&A).

Module 4 — Media strategy: Distribution, windows, and monetization in 2026

Objective: Understand modern release and revenue strategies as they relate to franchise health.

• Lecture topics: hybrid theatrical/streaming windows, global release optimization, transmedia extensions (games, live experiences, licensing), and data-driven release timing.
• Reading: Industry reports on 2025 box-office rebounds, streaming viewership measurement updates (Nielsen/Comscore 2025–26), and platform-specific strategies (Disney+/theatrical combinations).
• Activity: Students build a one-year release calendar for a hypothetical Filoni-era film plus two series, balancing theatrical grosses and subscriber retention impact.
• Assessment: Financial model (Excel/Google Sheets) for projected revenue and subscriber lift across scenarios (optimistic, base, pessimistic).

Module 5 — Brand stewardship and risk management

Objective: Teach frameworks for safeguarding IP value while enabling creative evolution.

• Lecture topics: canonical integrity vs. reinvention, crisis comms, legal/IP considerations, merchandising strategy, and long-term brand equity metrics.
• Activity: Crisis simulation — handle a hypothetical fan backlash episode. Teams draft a 48-hour comms plan and a 6-month recovery plan with KPIs.
• Deliverable: Crisis playbook + metrics dashboard (share of voice, sentiment, NPS, merchandise sales, search interest).

Module 6 — Capstone: Franchise roadmap & executive pitch

Objective: Synthesize learning into an investor/executive-ready strategic pitch.

• Task: In teams, produce a 12–15 slide pitch deck outlining a 5-year franchise roadmap for a legacy IP following the leadership change.
• Required sections: Vision & creative thesis, slate composition, distribution strategy, fan engagement plan, revenue model, risk mitigation, and measurement plan.
• Presentation: 10-minute pitch + 10-minute Q&A to a panel (instructors, industry guest judges). Grading uses a rubric emphasizing evidence, strategic coherence, and feasibility.

Practical tools, datasets, and templates (course and tool reviews)

This is a course-and-tool focused seminar: pick a primary analytics stack, a secondary qualitative toolset, and templates for deliverables.

Recommended analytics stack (2026)

• Brandwatch or Talkwalker — enterprise-level social listening with historical trend analysis.
• YouTube Analytics + Channel/Video-level comments export — essential for creator-led franchises that live on video.
• Parrot Analytics — audience demand metrics for global series and films (2025–26 reports show improved cross-platform comparability).
• Box Office Mojo / Comscore — theatrical performance and market share tracking.
• Open-source NLP: VADER for quick sentiment + Hugging Face transformer classifiers fine-tuned for fandom language (memes, sarcasm).

Teaching templates & resources

• Annotated timeline template (Google Slides)
• Social sentiment dashboard (Google Data Studio / Looker Studio starter report) with sample data and instructions.
• Pitch deck template tailored for franchise roadmaps (12 slides: thesis, slate, finances, comms, KPIs).
• Assessment rubrics for group work and individual reflection (creativity, evidence use, strategic coherence, presentation).

Assignments and grading: Clear, fair, and practical

Example grade weighting (adjust to institution needs):

• Participation & role-play: 15%
• Module deliverables (timelines, dashboards): 35%
• Financial model & risk plan: 20%
• Capstone pitch: 30% (team grade with individual reflection)

Use rubrics that reward evidence and trade-off analysis rather than “taste.” This is crucial when teaching controversial franchises — students must justify strategic choices with data, not only preferences.

Classroom activities that drive engagement and real-world skills

1. Social Listening Sprint (1 week): Students identify three moments that changed fan sentiment (e.g., announcements, release events) and produce short memetic analysis.
2. Role-play Greenlight (single 2-hour session): Simulate studio politics. Rotate roles: Creative Director (Filoni-like), President (Kennedy-style), CFO, Marketing Lead, Fan Rep.
3. Crisis Simulation (48 hours + debrief): Use a timed scenario to teach rapid response and calm stakeholder communication. See the enterprise playbook style of rapid triage for high-scale incidents when designing your assessment.
4. Pitch Night: Public presentation with industry guest judges (producers, studio execs, community leaders). Valuable for networking and portfolio-building.

Evidence & evaluation: How to grade qualitative fandom arguments

Fandom arguments are noisy and emotive. Use mixed-method evaluation:

• Quantitative: Trend correlation (announcement vs. search spikes), sentiment delta, box-office/streaming lift, merchandise orders.
• Qualitative: Thematic coding of fan discourse (concerns about canonicity, casting, tone), influence mapping (which voices set agendas), and narrative framing.
• Combine both into a single evidence score (0–10) that feeds the rubric's “Evidence” category. Use modern visualization techniques and on-device analytics to help communicate results — see On-Device AI data viz for examples.

2026 trends & future predictions useful for classroom debate

Use these to frame discussion and future-proof student recommendations:

• Real-time fan feedback will increasingly shape mid-season corrections for series and marketing pivots for films.
• AI-assisted pre-visualization and script iteration shorten development cycles — but increase expectation of consistent quality across multi-platform slates.
• Licensing and experiential revenue (parks, live events) will outpace box-office gains for mature franchises, making brand stewardship crucial.
• Studio leadership recognizability matters: creators with demonstrated fan trust (like Filoni) can calm certain communities but also face higher scrutiny for authenticity and canon consistency.

Teaching tip: Using controversy as a learning tool

Controversies — from hotly debated sequels to perceived mismatches between creator vision and audience expectation — should be curated, not sensationalized. Present diverse primary sources (official statements, fan forums, critic reviews, sales data). Encourage students to map root causes rather than assign blame.

Guest speakers and community partners

Invite a mix of practical perspectives:

• Studio executive or producer (insights into slate decisions)
• Community managers from major platforms (moderation, sentiment measurement)
• Independent critics and fan community leaders (interpretive diversity)
• Analytics vendors (short demos of Brandwatch / Talkwalker / Parrot Analytics capabilities in 2026)

Sample week-by-week (12-week) schedule

1. Week 1: Intro & timeline — leadership and stakes
2. Week 2: Creative strategy frameworks
3. Week 3: Workshop — greenlight simulation
4. Week 4: Social listening fundamentals
5. Week 5: Midterm deliverable — annotated timeline + memetic analysis
6. Week 6: Distribution and revenue modeling
7. Week 7: Crisis management & brand stewardship
8. Week 8: Guest speaker(s) & industry Q&A
9. Week 9: Capstone planning and financial model work
10. Week 10: Pitch rehearsal & feedback
11. Week 11: Final pitches
12. Week 12: Reflection, portfolio assembly, and next steps for students

Actionable takeaways for instructors (quick-start checklist)

• Prepare a 2-page starter pack (timeline, template slide deck, dataset export instructions) for Week 1.
• Select one analytics vendor for hands-on demos; use open-source tools for student projects to control costs.
• Line up a guest speaker early — industry calendars fill fast in 2026.
• Emphasize evidence-based grading and require a short reflection from each student explaining their individual contribution.
• Use the Lucasfilm leadership change as an anchor point — encourage comparisons to other franchises (Marvel, Star Trek) for breadth.

Final reflections: What students learn about leadership, creativity, and communities

Leadership changes like the 2026 Lucasfilm transition crystallize the trade-offs at the heart of franchise management: creative vision versus franchise continuity, short-term commercial imperatives versus long-term brand equity, centralized control versus community collaboration. This seminar turns these trade-offs into practical skills.

Students leave not only better versed in the language of executives and analysts, but with real artifacts they can show employers: dashboards, pitch decks, crisis playbooks, and a demonstrable ability to connect executive decisions with measurable fan reaction and business outcomes.

Call to action

Ready to teach this seminar? Download the complete Seminar Pack (syllabus, slides, templates, rubrics, and starter datasets) or request a guest speaker from our industry network. If you’re building a portfolio, try the capstone pitch and share it with hiring managers — franchises are hiring strategists who can bridge creative and analytics.

Want the pack? Visit our course resources page or contact us to get the editable templates and a 60-minute onboarding call for instructors. Turn headline debates into classroom clarity — and give students portfolio-ready work that employers value.

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