Adam Driver dropped a pretty massive Star Wars tidbit in an interview with the Associated Press, released today: he was quietly working on developing a Star Wars film for two years before Disney ultimately killed the project.
In the interview, which was in promotion of Driver’s upcoming film Father Mother Sister Brother, the actor known for playing Ben Solo (a.k.a. Kylo Ren) in the Star Wars sequel trilogy brought up this previously unknown project. The movie was going to be called The Hunt for Ben Solo, set after the events of The Rise of Skywalker.
It all began in 2021, when Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy reached out to Driver to gauge his interest. His response was clear: “With a great director and a great story, I’d be there in a second. I loved that character and loved playing him.” But Driver was not just paying lip service to his interest in returning; he actually took it upon himself to aggressively pursue such a return. He developed an idea for how Ben Solo’s story could continue – a story Driver felt was unfinished – and he took it to director Steven Soderberg. From there, Driver worked with Soderbergh and Rebecca Blunt to outline a story, which they pitched to the Lucasfilm brain trust: Kathy Kennedy, Carrie Beck, and Dave Filoni.
The Lucasfilm brain trust was intrigued. This led to Scott Z. Burns being recruited to write a script for the movie – a script that Driver says is “one of the coolest (expletive) scripts I had ever been a part of.” When the script was taken to Lucasfilm, they were on board. “We presented the script to Lucasfilm,” Driver explained. “They loved the idea. They totally understood our angle and why we were doing it. We took it to Bob Iger and Alan Bergman and they said no. They didn’t see how Ben Solo was alive. And that was that.”
“It was called ‘The Hunt for Ben Solo’ and it was really cool,” Driver summarized. “But it is no more, so I can finally talk about it.” In a statement, Sodenberg said, “I really enjoyed making the movie in my head. I’m just sorry the fans won’t get to see it.”
I hope you realize just how wild this revelation is. Let’s just summarize what he shared, to make sure we’re understanding it:
- There was a Star Wars movie starring Adam Driver, one of the main characters of the sequel trilogy, the legacy of the Skywalker line, and an actor widely praised for his work on the franchise. Though the sequel trilogy was met with mixed reviews, Driver always felt to be something like the Ewan McGregor of the trilogy – an actor so brilliant that even those who disliked the films couldn’t help but appreciate his efforts. He has been nominated for multiple Academy Awards in his career so far.
- This movie also had a director attached, Steven Soderbergh, who has been nominated multiple times for the Academy Award for best director. An established director was pushing it, alongside a major Star Wars actor.
- The movie had a ‘finished’ script, that had been developed from a story. And the story would have presumably been exploring how Ben Solo ‘survived’ after the events of the sequel trilogy – and who would have been searching for him? Well, considering it was around the same time that Kathy Kennedy was talking with Daisy Ridley about returning, I’m sure she was also a major part of this story.
- What’s more, the Lucasfilm brain trust of Kennedy, Beck, and Filoni were on board. This is the truly crazy part of this: there was a pitch to them from an established actor and director, with a script, about this project, and they thought it was great.
And despite all of that, the Disney braintrust of Bob Iger and Alan Bergman shut it down. And the reason? “They didn’t see how Ben Solo was alive.” Now, remember, this is for a franchise that brought Emperor Palpatine back from the ‘dead’ in its most recent movie, brought Boba Fett back from the ‘dead’ in a Disney+ series since then, and is releasing a brand new animated series next year about Maul – another character brought back from the ‘dead’. And that’s just naming a few. It’s just so disingenuous for the Disney leadership to shut down a film like this based only on that, when presumably that’s what this whole movie was about.
Listen, I’m not the biggest fan of the franchise continually bringing people back from the dead. It lowers the stakes, and just a lazy excuse for storytelling. But at the same time, this kind of project seems to have had so much going for it as a way to do it, and if Driver, Sodenbergh, and the Lucasfilm leadership were all on board with it and enthused, then I’m confident they felt they had a good explanation for it.
It’s a shame this movie won’t be made. Not necessarily because this story is one that has to happen (though I’d have been very excited about it), but more so because of what it says about Disney’s leadership of Star Wars. Quite frankly, they don’t know what they want from the franchise. They haven’t released a movie in six years, and it seems they’ve been mostly content to trot out Grogu as often as they can while having basically nothing else figured out. They’ve proven to be quite reactionary to the whims and opinions of a vocal segment of the fans, and this reads like little more than them just reacting to the reception of The Rise of Skywalker. They probably view bringing Ben Solo back as an admission that some things about Episode IX weren’t great, and they don’t want to do that.
So it’s a bummer. I’m hoping the reaction to this news might be a bit of a wake-up call for Disney, and that this movie could eventually be made. But really, it’s more about what this says about Iger and Bergman than the project itself.
It would have been cool to see. But it would be even cooler to see Star Wars have a pulse, and a direction, again.
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