Star Wars fans aren’t the only ones mourning The Hunt for Ben Solo.
Steven Soderbergh is also disappointed that his planned Star Wars sequel starring Adam Driver never came to fruition. The Oscar-winning filmmaker recently told BK Magazine that it was “no surprise” to learn that former Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy was frustrated with Disney for scrapping the film.
“We were all frustrated,” Soderbergh said of the small group that worked on the project. “You know, that was two and a half years of free work for me and Adam and [screenwriter] Rebecca Blunt.”
Soderbergh added that prior to Driver revealing the project’s existence in an interview last year, he warned the actor not to “speculate” about why the film was axed — and to merely share the little information they were given.
“I said, ‘Look, do not editorialize or speculate about the why. Just say what happened, because all we know is what happened,'” Soderbergh recalled. “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.”
Ed Miller/Lucasfilm Ltd
He added, “I’d kind of made the movie in my head, and just felt bad that nobody else was going to get to see it.”
Entertainment Weekly has reached out to Lucasfilm for comment.
The proposed Star Wars movie would have picked up after the events of 2019’s Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker and centered on Driver’s fan-favorite character Ben Solo, also known as the villainous Kylo Ren (who seemingly met his end).
Soderbergh said he was surprised when the plug was pulled before budget and other production details were ever discussed. “I thought the conversation was strictly going to be a practical one where they go, ‘What is this going to cost?'” he explained. “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.”
Speaking to the Associated Press in October, Driver revealed that Soderbergh and Blunt (the pen name of Jules Asner, Soderbergh’s wife) had outlined a story, and said Scott Z. Burns had written a script that was the “standard” of what a Star Wars movie “should be.” Driver added that it had the “handmade and character-driven” feel of the franchise’s second entry, The Empire Strikes Back.
David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty
“We presented the script to Lucasfilm. They loved the idea. They totally understood our angle and why we were doing it,” Driver said. “We took it to [Disney execs] Bob Iger and Alan Bergman, and they said no. They didn’t see how Ben Solo was alive. And that was that.”
In the immediate aftermath of Driver’s revelation, Star Wars fans mobilized to express support for the dropped project by starting a “Save The Hunt for Ben Solo” campaign on social media. Meanwhile, Soderbergh wrote on Bluesky, “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!… Also, in the aftermath of the HFBS situation, I asked Kathy Kennedy if LFL had ever turned in a finished movie script for green-light to Disney and had it rejected. She said no, this was a first.”
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Last month, when news came that Kennedy was stepping down as president of Lucasfilm after 14 influential years, she spoke to Deadline Hollywood about several of the projects that went unmade during her tenure, including the Soderbergh-Burns script that she described as “just great.” She added, “Anything’s a possibility if somebody’s willing to take a risk.”