Director Steven Soderbergh has a disappointing replace for “Star Wars” followers hoping to see Adam Driver reprise his function as Ben Solo in a future film. The villainous Kylo Ren, who first appeared in 2015’s “The Pressure Awakens,” was later redeemed in 2019’s “The Rise of Skywalker,” which was additionally the final “Star Wars” movie launched in theaters. Though Ben Solo seemingly handed away on the finish of the sequel trilogy, Driver and Soderbergh had an concept to proceed Ben’s story. Sadly, high Disney execs didn’t, resulting in the movie’s cancellation. Regardless of a big fan marketing campaign to get the film again on observe, particularly with modifications in each Lucasfilm and Disney’s management, Soderbergh revealed that the film is “completed” and that he has moved on to different initiatives.
Disney’s Management Change Gained’t Assist Ben Solo’s Future
In January, Kathleen Kennedy stepped down as President of Lucasfilm and was changed by Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan. Two months later, Josh D’Amaro formally succeeded Bob Iger as Disney CEO. With a lot change in management, “Star Wars” followers have been hopeful that the Ben Solo movie, tentatively dubbed “The Hunt for Ben Solo,” would lastly come to fruition.
Sadly, that doesn’t appear to be the case. Whereas selling his upcoming movie “The Christophers,” director Steven Soderbergh instructed The Playlist that the movie is useless, saying, “Look, if it was gonna occur, it could have occurred.”
“It’s that easy,” he added, giving a transparent “Nope” when requested if he would ever return to the venture.
‘Andor’ Had Nothing To Do With The Ben Solo Film
Soderbergh was additionally requested a few fan rumor suggesting that Tony Gilroy’s extremely profitable Disney+ sequence “Andor” sparked the concept of bringing Ben Solo again to life. Soderbergh shot that concept down, saying that conversations with Driver had truly began earlier than the “Andor” premiere.
“Effectively, I don’t wish to say [it had no influence], as a result of then it makes it appear to be, you recognize, ‘I watched ‘Andor,’ and it had completely no influence on me,’ which isn’t true, it was nice,” he defined. “However this was [all] earlier than ‘Andor’ aired. Adam and I began speaking, and this might have been virtually three years in the past now.”
Steven Soderbergh Doesn’t Remorse His Work On His Scrapped ‘Star Wars’ Movie
Soderbergh nonetheless valued the venture as a invaluable artistic train, even whether it is now not shifting ahead.
“I don’t remorse one minute of the time we spent engaged on that,” he stated. “I felt the work was good. It’s simply good so that you can be in that room and dealing on it. It’s like CrossFit—it’s good for you. It’ll have a residual impact that can be sudden sooner or later.”
As a substitute of lingering on regrets, it appears Soderbergh is taking a web page out of Kylo Ren’s guide and is able to “let the previous die” and transfer on to different initiatives.
“As quickly because it grew to become obvious, OK, not gonna occur, I sat down and began writing [something else],” Soderbergh stated. “It’s like, ‘OK, new situation, let’s get cracking.’ At a sure level, it’s like complaining in regards to the climate. You simply gotta maintain shifting.”
Steven Soderbergh Reveals The Ben Solo Film Was Adam Driver’s Thought
Within the interview, Soderbergh revealed that the concept to revisit the character of Ben Solo truly got here from the “Marriage Story” actor himself.
“It was strictly Adam saying, ‘I feel there’s nonetheless someplace to go together with this character.’ That’s the way it began,” Soderbergh revealed. “In any other case, I by no means in 1,000,000 years would have discovered myself in that universe once more.”
Adam Driver First Revealed The Movie’s Existence In October 2025
In October 2025, Adam Driver first revealed the existence of “The Hunt for Ben Solo” in a dialog with AP News whereas selling his movie “Father Mom Sister Brother.”
Soderbergh and Rebecca Blunt outlined a narrative that the group then pitched to Kennedy, Filoni, and Lucasfilm vp Cary Beck. After getting their approval, Scott Z. Burns wrote the script.
“We offered the script to Lucasfilm. They beloved the concept. They completely understood our angle and why we have been doing it,” Driver stated. “We took it to Bob Iger and Alan Bergman, they usually stated no. They didn’t see how Ben Solo was alive. And that was that.”
