Last week, Adam Driver caused a massive stir in the Star Wars community when he revealed that, contrary to online fan belief, he had actively tried to revive his character, Ben Solo/Kylo Ren, in a new movie titled The Hunt for Ben Solo. It was supposed to be set after the events of terrible The Rise of Skywalker. Adam had a dream, a script, and a director all lined up. That director was none other than Steven Soderbergh. The project actually got further along than Adam let on. In fact, it was approved on behalf of Lucasfilm by Star Wars mega producer Kathleen Kennedy, but ultimately denied by Disney’s on/off again CEO Bob Iger. Now that the cat’s out of the bag, Soderbergh shared his side of the story on social media, revealing that Kathy K herself told him that The Hunt for Ben Solo was the first-ever film that Lucasfilm approved but Disney rejected,
Steven Soderbergh is speaking out about his unmade “Star Wars” movie, “The Hunt For Ben Solo.” After would-be star Adam Driver revealed the project in an interview with AP on Monday, the “Ocean’s Eleven” director took to BlueSky to write that he “did not enjoy” hiding the project from fans, but emphasized the importance of keeping it under wraps.
“For the record, I did not enjoy lying about the existence of ‘THE HUNT FOR BEN SOLO,’ but it really did need to remain a secret…until now!” Soderbergh wrote on Monday.
On Friday, he added, “Also, in the aftermath of the ‘HFBS’ situation, I asked Kathy Kennedy if LFL had ever turned in a finished movie script for greenlight to Disney and had it rejected. She said no, this was a first.”
“The Hunt for Ben Solo” was set to take place after the events of “The Rise of Skywalker,” and would have followed Driver’s Kylo Ren, aka Ben Solo, on a search for redemption. Driver called the unmade film “one of the coolest” projects he’s ever been a part of.
Soderbergh had previously told AP of developing “The Hunt for Ben Solo,” “I really enjoyed making the movie in my head. I’m just sorry the fans won’t get to see it.”
On Friday, Collider reported that a group of “Star Wars” fanatics paid for a plane towing a banner reading “Save ‘The Hunt for Ben Solo’” to fly over Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, Calif. A reporter for the outlet was able to take pictures of the stunt while on location.
This whole thing is just completely wild. I cannot believe that the first Star Wars movie that Disney rejected happened to be a Steven Soderbergh script about Darth Vader’s grandson/Leia and Han Solo’s son. The sequel trilogy left so much on the table and yet, there’s been almost nothing to rectify any of it. Like, however you feel about whether that movie had any business being made, it’s still crazy that Bob Iger rejected a Soderbergh-helmed Star Wars project. Who does that?! Sure, The Rise of Skywalker completely sucked, but surely they could have made something work here.
I’ve been trying to discover if there’s been any official reasoning behind the decision to scrap THFBS, but all I could find was the excuse that execs “didn’t see how Ben Solo was alive” after the events of The Rise of Skywalker. While I know that many of you are down with a Ben Solo movie, I’m still not convinced. Driver and Soderbergh coming in hot really makes me wonder, though. Are we about to get news from a “source” that claims the movie was on all along?
For the record, I did not enjoy lying about the existence of THE HUNT FOR BEN SOLO, but it really did need to remain a secret…until now!
— bitchuation.bsky.social (@bitchuation.bsky.social) October 20, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Also, in the aftermath of the HFBS situation, I asked Kathy Kennedy if LFL had ever turned in a finished movie script for greenlight to Disney and had it rejected. She said no, this was a first.
— bitchuation.bsky.social (@bitchuation.bsky.social) October 22, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Photos credit: David Zorrakino/Europa Press/Avalon, Media Punch/INSTARimages.com
It makes me sad that Disney keeps fumbling the bag when it comes to Star Wars. I wish they would have made this movie – but ao3 authors have already brought Ben Solo back in multiple plausible ways that fit with Star Wars lore, so at this point I’ll just have to be satisfied with that.
I don’t know why Soderbergh has publicized this so much, but if I thought I was greenlit to make a Star Wars movie I guess I’d be pissed if the rug was pulled out from under me, too. This is probably his last ditch chance to win this in the court of public opinion and try to get the move made.
Honestly, if Disney wants some good Star Wars stories, they really ought to go through AO3. There are a ton of novels that have come from Reylo (Kylo/Ben and Rey) stories alone.
I’m not even a diehard Star Wars fan and I would have watched TF out of this, assuming they didn’t cast anyone credibly accused of SA/DV.
Throw in The Force Awakens (2015), The Last Jedi (2017) and Solo (2018) as also horrible. I wish they would have left it as Return of the Jedi and allow Leia, Luke and Han to live happily ever after. They could have created new characters, plots, dilemmas and conflict from the vast Star Wars universe alone without invoking past characters. Stop with the prequels and sequels. Create stories that take place 1000 years after Return of the Jedi and introduce new characters.
I think they could have created interesting stories with a new generation of Skywalkers and new characters, while also showing Leia, Luke and Han to live happily ever after. They didn’t have to make their lives so bleak as the sequel trilogy made them. I blame JJ Abrams for that, and wanting to make a reverse Darth Vader in Kylo Ren/Ben Solo (which was an incredibly stupid idea and not even well done).
I would love to see this movie….but somehow they returned Palpatine 😑😑…
I didn’t see how Emperor Palpatine was alive and still we got a whole movie about him!
Considering how much Disney paid for the franchise they needed to make bank as quickly as possible – putting JJ Abrams in charge of the new trilogy was a BIG mistake as he basically remade the original 3 (he did the same with Star Trek). The Force Awakens had potential but out of the 3 The Last Jedi was the better one – basically as Abrams didn’t direct.
I think would have been an interesting movie to see – esp as Driver was the one behind it as I always got the impression he was embarrassed by his role in the trilogy. He had crap to work with, esp in the last one.