A new Star Wars movie which would see the return of Ben Solo was seemingly greenlit… then axed…last year. Unfortunately, thanks to Disney, The Hunt for Ben Solo is a dead dream. Lucasfilm, along with Adam Driver and Steven Soderbergh, were totally on board with the spin-off. It made it pretty far up the corporate chain, too, before Disney decided to scrap it since Ben Solo (Kylo Ren) died in The Rise of Skywalker (because that’s totally stopped them before). Following Kathleen Kennedy’s departure from Lucasfilm in January of this year, Soderbergh is once again expressing his frustration in a conversation with BKMAG. After two years of unpaid work on the Ben Solo Star Wars project, he is disappointed.
“We were all frustrated,” Soderbergh shares in the interview about the process of making the Kylo Ren/Ben Solo Star Wars movie and what happened with The Hunt for Ben Solo. “You know, that was two and a half years of free work for me and Adam [Driver] and Rebecca Blunt. When Adam and I discussed him talking about it publicly, I said, ‘Look, do not editorialize or speculate about the why. Just say what happened, because all we know is what happened.’ The stated reason was, ‘We don’t think Ben Solo could be alive.’ And that was all we were told. And so there’s nothing to do about it, you know, except move on.”
Soderbergh was set to front the Ben Solo project with Rebecca Blunt. Driver is the one who came forward with the idea to Soderbergh some years ago. “I always was interested in doing another Star Wars,” said the actor in an interview with Associated Press. And the dream became very real for the duo. Until Disney put their foot down on The Hunt for Ben Solo. A real slap in the face. According to then-Lucasfilm head honcho Kennedy, this was the first time Disney had straight-up rejected a finished script.
“I’d kind of made the movie in my head, and just felt bad that nobody else was going to get to see it,” said Soderbergh, “I thought the conversation was strictly going to be a practical one, where they go, ‘what is this going to cost?’ And I had a really good answer for that. But it never even got to that point. It’s insane. We’re all very disappointed.” And fans are disappointed to, we know many who would have wanted to see The Hunt for Ben Solo become a real movie.
On the bright side, the turnover, with both Kennedy and Disney CEO Bob Iger stepping down, may lead to greener pastures ahead. Meaning, under new leadership, there’s always a chance for Lucasfilm and Disney to circle back to The Hunt for Ben Solo in the future.
But it sounds like Soderbergh isn’t interested in pursuing that course. He shares, “Nope,” When asked if new leadership might provide a chance to make the Ben Solo Star Wars movie. “As soon as it became apparent, OK, not gonna happen, I sat down and started writing [something else]. It’s like, ‘OK, new scenario, let’s get cracking.’ At a certain point, it’s like complaining about the weather. You just gotta keep moving.” Adding, “Look, if it was gonna happen, it would have happened. It’s that simple.”
And ultimately, he doesn’t even seem to want to do more Star Wars. Soderbergh says “It was strictly Adam saying, ‘I think there’s still somewhere to go with this character.’ That’s how it started. Otherwise, I never in a million years would have found myself in that universe again.”
Well, if it will happen, it will happen; until then, Star Wars‘ focus rests on The Mandalorian & Grogu and Star Wars: Starfighter.
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