For a Star Wars project that never officially existed, The Hunt for Ben Solo has been generating a whole lot of interest lately. Both Steven Soderbergh and Adam Driver, confirmed that their scrapped Star Wars movie was in active development for nearly two years, and it looks like Soderbergh may have been working on it as recently as 10 months ago.
According to the director’s 2024 viewing and reading diary posted on his Soderblog, Soderbergh rewatched nearly the entire Star Wars saga last year. In February, he logged The Phantom Menace, Return of the Jedi, and Attack of the Clones.
By September, he had watched The Empire Strikes Back, and in December, he rounded out the year with Revenge of the Sith, A New Hope (twice), and even more prequel revisits.
Fans noticed this spike in Star Wars viewings was way beyond his usual yearly watches, sparking speculation that he was deep in the creative process for his Ben Solo film.
Adam Driver, who played Ben Solo/Kylo Ren in the sequel trilogy, recently opened up about the abandoned project, revealing that it was called The Hunt for Ben Solo and that it had been in talks since 2021.
The screenplay came from Scott Z. Burns, who previously collaborated with Soderbergh on Contagion. Lucasfilm reportedly loved the story, but Disney executives Bob Iger and Alan Bergman didn’t see how Ben could have returned after his death in The Rise of Skywalker.
Driver described the project as, “one of the coolest (expletive) scripts I had ever been a part of.” He went on to explain where things fell apart:
“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.”
Driver admitted he was genuinely eager to return to the galaxy far, far away, saying:
“I always was interested in doing another Star Wars. 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.”
Soderbergh also expressed his disappointment over the project being shelved:
“I really enjoyed making the movie in my head. I’m just sorry the fans won’t get to see it.”
The news that Soderbergh was still watching and possibly working on Star Wars material in late 2024 adds an interesting layer to the story. The idea that The Hunt for Ben Solo was being developed by a talented filmmaker like Soderbergh and then shut down by Disney sucks for a long time for fans who loved Ben Solo’s arc and wanted to see more of him.
Maybe one day, Disney will see the light. Maybe it could at least get the comic book treatment, so we could at least see how the story would play out.
As for what’s next in the Star Wars universe, the next big-screen adventure will be The Mandalorian and Grogu, featuring Pedro Pascal returning as Din Djarin, joined by Sigourney Weaver as a New Republic colonel and Jeremy Allen White as Rotta the Hutt. The film hits theaters on May 22, 2026.
