The eagerly-anticipated ad ends with a scene of a four-year-old Elton opening the gift of his grandmother’s piano on Christmas day.
Sir Elton John is the star of this year’s John Lewis Christmas advert with his performance of Your Song the soundtrack to a festive-tinged retrospective of his life and career.
The ad, called The Boy and the Piano, opens with a dressing-gown clad Sir Elton tapping out the opening notes to Your Song, his first major hit.
Viewers then follow the singer through key moments in his life, with scenes of him on stadium tours, travelling on a private jet, recording Your Song, playing the piano in a local pub and performing in a school recital.
The advert ends with a four-year-old Elton running down the stairs on Christmas morning and unwrapping his grandmother’s gift of her piano – a scene “inspired by real events” but involving “some creativity”, the department store said.
With the exception of the present-day opening scene featuring Sir Elton himself, actors take on the role of him at various stages of his life, while the images of the stadium based on a concert in Portland in the US were entirely recreated with computer-generated imagery.
It is the second of the retailer’s Christmas ads to feature Your Song after singer Ellie Goulding recorded a cover for the 2010 campaign.
Sir Elton said: “The John Lewis Christmas campaign has so many warm memories for me and my family.“It’s been a lovely opportunity for me to reflect on my life in music and the incredible journey I have been on, and how first playing my grandmother’s piano marks the moment when music came into my life.
“The ad is absolutely fantastic and I’ve truly loved every minute of being a part of it.”
John Lewis customer director Craig Inglis said: “The ad tells the story of why Elton’s piano was more than just a gift and we hope to remind customers of that special moment when they’ve given a gift at Christmas time that they know will be treasured forever.”
John Lewis addressed speculation about the cost of this year’s ad, describing reports that it had paid Sir Elton £5 million as “wildly inaccurate”.
It added that Sir Elton had requested that a portion of his fee be donated to the Elton John Charitable Trust when he was first approached to be involved.
The retailer, which reported a 98.8% profits crash for the first half of the year in September, said the ad was a “crucial part” of its overall marketing campaign and “one of the most effective marketing campaigns in the industry, delivering an excellent return on investment”.
John Lewis and Waitrose employees were given the first opportunity to share the two minute and 20 second ad at 6am on Thursday before its launch on the store’s social media channels, its website and in shops at 8am.
The ad first airs on television on Thursday at 9.15pm during ITV’s Dark Heart, although ITV viewers may have noticed that the theme tunes to some of the channel’s shows including Coronation Street and This Morning were played solely in piano notes on Wednesday to tease the advert’s premiere.
Customers at the retailer’s flagship Oxford Street branch can also step into a 2,000 square foot recreation of the ad production set to try on some of the costumes, listen to recordings from Elton John’s 17-11-70 album and have photos taken at the piano.
But shoppers might be disappointed to learn that there will be no plush toys available in Sir Elton’s likeness this year, with the retailer instead selling four pianos – two uprights for around £800 and two keyboards starting at £150 – and a range of vintage tour t-shirts.
After more than 13 years at the helm of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy is stepping down from the “Star Wars” factory founded by George Lucas.
The Walt Disney Co. announced Thursday that it will now turn to Dave Filoni to steer “Star Wars,” as president and chief creative officer, into its sixth decade and beyond. Filoni, who served as the chief commercial officer of Lucasfilm, will inherit the mantle of one of the movies marquee franchises, alongside Lynwen Brennan, president and general manager of Lucasfilm’s businesses, who will serve as co-president.
“When George Lucas asked me to take over Lucasfilm upon his retirement, I couldn’t have imagined what lay ahead,” said Kennedy. “It has been a true privilege to spend more than a decade working alongside the extraordinary talent at Lucasfilm."
Kennedy, Lucas’ handpicked successor, had presided over the ever-expanding science-fiction world of “Star Wars” since Disney acquired it in 2012. In announcing Thursday's news, Bob Iger, chief executive officer of the Walt Disney Co. called her “a visionary filmmaker.”
Kennedy oversaw a highly lucrative but often contentious period in “Star Wars” history that yielded a blockbuster trilogy and acclaimed streaming spinoffs such as “The Mandalorian” and “Andor,” yet found increasing frustration from longtime fans.
Under Kennedy’s stewardship, Lucasfilm amassed more than $5.6 billion in box office and helped establish Disney+ as a streaming destination — achievements that easily validated the $4.05 billion Disney plunked down for the company. But Kennedy also struggled to deliver the big-screen magic that Lucas captured in the original trilogy from the late 1970s and early 1980s, and her relationship with “Star Wars” loyalists became a saga of its own.
Filoni has established himself almost entirely on the small screen, entering the franchise with the animated series “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” and creating the tepidly received Disney+ series “Ahsoka.” Filoni, who first collaborated with Lucas on “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” has also been an executive producer on “The Mandalorian,” “The Book of Boba Fett” and “Skeleton Crew.”
Both will report to Alan Bergman, Disney Entertainment co-chairman.
“From Rey to Grogu, Kathy has overseen the greatest expansion in Star Wars storytelling on-screen that we have ever seen,” said Filoni. “I am incredibly grateful to Kathy, George, Bob Iger, and Alan Bergman for their trust and the opportunity to lead Lucasfilm in this new role, doing a job I truly love. May the Force be with you.”
Before joining Lucasfilm, Kennedy was one of Hollywood’s most successful producers ever. In 1981, she co-founded Amblin Entertainment with Steven Spielberg and her eventual husband, Frank Marshall. She produced “E.T.,” “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” “Jurassic Park” and the “Back to the Future” trilogy.
At Lucasfilm, her biggest hit came at the start, with 2015’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” The J.J. Abrams-directed film grossed more than $2 billion worldwide. But the subsequent installment, Rian Johnson’s “The Last Jedi” (2017), was bitterly divisive. The third film, Abrams’ “The Rise of Skywalker” (2019), was widely panned by critics and fans, alike.
After “The Rise of Skywalker,” “Star Wars” went dark on the big screen despite a litany of announced projects. The dry spell is set to be broken in May by Jon Favreau’s “The Mandalorian & Grogu.” The intervening years have been marked by streaming successes in “The Mandalorian” and “Andor,” but the future of “Star Wars” has felt increasingly uncertain.
Struggles over tone and vision have been frequent. The 2018 Han Solo spinoff “Solo: A Star Wars Story” saw its directors, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, fired during production and replaced by Ron Howard. Most found the mixed-and-matched result blandly disappointing.
More recently, Adam Driver, who played Kylo Ren/Ben Solo in the most recent “Star Wars” trilogy,” divulged to The Associated Press last year that he and Steven Soderbergh had developed a Ben Solo film with Kennedy and Lucasfilm’s support for two years before Disney chief Bob Iger nixed it. Fans were so irate that a plane was flown over Disney’s Burbank studios with a banner reading “Save ‘The Hunt for Ben Solo.’”
Instead, the only “Star Wars” movie of Kennedy’s stewardship to win widespread and prevailing approval from fans was arguably 2016’s “Rogue One.” Gareth Edwards’ spinoff was also a troubled production, leading to Tony Gilroy, eventual creator of “Andor,” overseeing reshoots. Yet despite that, “Rogue One” — taking place within “Star Wars” but outside of the main Jedi storyline — might be the only film of Kennedy’s “Star Wars” reign that managed to both stay true to the space odyssey’s tone and to break new ground.
Kennedy's fingerprints will be on many of coming “Star Wars” projects for years to come. That includes Shawn Levy's “Star Wars: Starfighter,” with Ryan Gosling, due out in May 2027, and a fleet of other projects in various stages of development.
FILE - Producer Kathleen Kennedy poses upon arrival at the premiere of the film 'Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny' June 26, 2023, in London. (Scott Garfitt/Invision/AP, File)
Actor Keri Russell, left, and producer Kathleen Kennedy pose together at the AFI Awards at the Four Seasons in Los Angeles, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
FILE - Film producer Kathleen Kennedy, left, and director Dave Filoni are welcomed by R2-D2 and C-3PO, right, as they appear on stage during a fan convention called the Star Wars Celebration in Chiba, near Tokyo, April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae, File)
FILE - Kathleen Kennedy, winner of the BAFTA Fellowship, poses with her award backstage at the BAFTA Film Awards in central London, Feb. 2, 2020. (Photo by Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP, File)
