Once upon a time, Lucasfilm was developing The Hunt for Ben Solo, a Star Wars movie that would have seen Adam Driver return to the franchise. This wasn’t just a concept either; Lucasfilm presented Disney with a finished script, a budget, and even a proposed start date, but the studio scrapped it. Despite a fan campaign to save the project, it doesn’t seem like we’ll ever see The Hunt for Ben Solo, and Steven Soderbergh is very disappointed.
Steven Soderbergh on The Hunt for Ben Solo
Driver originally brought the concept to Soderbergh, who spent two years outlining the script with Rebecca Blunt (Logan Lucky) before they pitched it to Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, vice-president Cary Beck, and CCO Dave Filoni. They loved it, and Scott Z. Burns (Contagion) was brought in to write a script. But, as we know, it came to a screeching halt when Disney said no.
In a new interview with BK Mag, Soderbergh expressed his frustration. “We were all frustrated,” he said. “You know, that was two and a half years of free work for me and Adam and Rebecca Blunt. When Adam and I discussed him talking about it publicly, I said, ‘Look, do not editorialize or speculate about the why. Just say what happened, because all we know is what happened.’ 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.“
Soderbergh continued, “And as I posted, I’d kind of made the movie in my head, and just felt bad that nobody else was going to get to see it. I thought the conversation was strictly going to be a practical one—where they go, what is this going to cost? 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.“
Adam Driver was Excited to Return
Driver first mentioned the project last year, and seemed pumped to return to the franchise. “[It was] one of the coolest (expletive) scripts I had ever been a part of,” Driver said. “We presented the script to Lucasfilm. 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. But it is no more, so I can finally talk about it.”
The next Star Wars film to hit our screens will be The Mandalorian and Grogu on May 22.
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