‘They Didn’t See How Ben Solo Was Alive. And That Was That’ — Adam Driver Reveals Disney Said No to a ‘Really Cool’ Kylo Ren Star Wars Movie

Kylo Ren actor Adam Driver has revealed he and director Steven Soderbergh spent two years developing a Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker follow-up called The Hunt for Ben Solo, but Disney said no to the proposal.

Speaking to the Associated Press, Driver said that because Disney had officially declined the movie, he was now able to talk about it.

Driver played Ben Solo / Kylo Ren in each of the three films in Lucasfilm’s Sequel Trilogy, with his final appearance in 2019’s divisive The Rise of Skywalker. “I always was interested in doing another Star Wars,” Driver said. He revealed he had been in talks about another Star Wars movie since 2021, and that Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy had “reached out.”

“I always said: with a great director and a great story, I’d be there in a second,” Driver commented. “I loved that character and loved playing him.”

The idea was The Hunt for Ben Solo, a movie directed by Soderbergh set after The Rise of Skywalker. Of course, it’s hard to imagine Ben Solo in any future Star Wars film after his heroic death at the end of the movie (a fatally wounded Ben uses his remaining Force power to revive Rey and they kiss before he dies). But apparently Driver felt there was unfinished business for his character — and there’s an interesting line in the article that touches on how Driver felt the Sequel Trilogy played out for Kylo Ren:

Driver had undertaken the trilogy with an arc in mind for Ren that inverted the journey of Darth Vader. As the trilogy evolved, it didn’t play out that way.

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The movie was pitched to Kennedy, Lucasfilm vice president Cary Beck, and Lucasfilm chief creative officer Dave Filoni, and they were apparently interested. Scott Z. Burns was drafted in to write a script, which Driver described as “one of the coolest (expletive) scripts I had ever been a part of.” Driver said Lucasfilm “loved the idea” and “totally understood our angle and why we were doing it.”

However, Disney CEO Bob Iger and Disney co-chairman Alan Bergman said no. “They didn’t see how Ben Solo was alive. And that was that,” he said. Soderbergh told AP: “I really enjoyed making the movie in my head. I’m just sorry the fans won’t get to see it.” Disney and Lucasfilm declined to comment.

Driver was described as feeling mystified by the decision, insisting the plan was 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.” He pointed to the much-loved Empire Strikes Back as being “the standard of what those movies were.”

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