If you felt 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker kinda left Kylo Ren aka Ben Solo high and dry, well, you aren’t alone. Adam Driver felt the same way, and in a surprising reveal to the AP, he said he spent two years developing a Star Wars movie with Steven Soderbergh that would’ve continued Kylo Ren’s story.
“I always was interested in doing another ‘Star Wars,’” Driver revealed. “I had been talking about doing another one since 2021. Kathleen (Kennedy) had reached out. I always said: With a great director and a great story, I’d be there in a second. I loved that character and loved playing him.”
The film, titled The Hunt for Ben Solo, would’ve taken place after The Rise of Skywalker and focused on Kylo Ren’s survival and spiritual reckoning. Soderbergh and screenwriter Rebecca Hunt took the idea to Lucasfilm head honcho Kathleen Kennedy, Cary Beck, and Dave Filoni. They were enthusiastic about the plan, so much so that Scott Z. Burns was brought in to write the screenplay.
So what happened? Why isn’t this a project that got off the ground?
Driver explains, “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.”
Boo. Lame.
Soderbergh confirmed he was part of the movie’s development, stating “I really enjoyed making the movie in my head. I’m just sorry the fans won’t get to see it.”
Driver called the screenplay “one of the coolest (expletive) scripts I had ever been a part of.”
Driver also couldn’t understand Disney’s reasoning for turning the film down…
“We wanted to be judicial about how to spend money and be economical with it, and do it for less than most but in the same spirit of what those movies are, which is handmade and character-driven. ‘Empire Strikes Back’ being, in my opinion, the standard of what those movies were. But he is, to me, one of my favorite directors of all time. He lives his code, lives his ethics, doesn’t compromise.”
If anyone could make a Star Wars movie on a tighter budget, it would’ve been Soderbergh. It’s hard not to see this as a massive wasted opportunity, and perhaps now that fans know about it, they’ll start making their voices heard to Disney.
