‘The Hunt For Ben Solo’ Director Backs Up Adam Driver’s Claim That Star Wars Film Was Cancelled Because Disney Saw No Way Kylo Ren “Could Be Alive”
In confirming Adam Driver’s previous recollection regarding The Hunt For Ben Solo‘s abrupt scrapping, its intended director Steven Soderbergh has affirmed that the film was indeed shut down due to Disney’s inability to imagine any scenario in which Kylo Ren could be presented as “alive”.
As previously detailed by Driver during an October 2025 interview with the Associated Press, The Hunt for Ben Solo was set to pick up in the aftermath of The Rise of Skywalker and would have seen the Skywalker descendant being revived from the dead through-as-of-yet-unrevealed means in order to take tie up some loose ends before finally joining the Force for good.
“I always was interested in doing another Star Wars. I had been talking about doing another one since 2021,” explained Driver. “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.
Praising it as “one of the coolest (expletive) scripts I had ever been a part of,” the Kylo Ren actor then turned to discuss its eventual scrapping, which he said came at the direct hands of Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger and Walt Disney Studios CEO Alan Bergman.
“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.”
“We wanted 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. Empire Strikes Back being, in my opinion, the standard of what those movies were. But [Soderbergh] is, to me, one of my favorite directors of all time. He lives his code, lives his ethics, doesn’t compromise.”
Independently reached for comment by the AP, Soderbergh himself asserted at the time, “I really enjoyed making the movie in my head. I’m just sorry the fans won’t get to see it.” – and it is this exact sentiment that the director reiterated during a recent interview with Brooklyn Magazine’s Abe Beane.
Asked by his host as to whether he was aware that former Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy was herself frustrated by The Hunt for Ben Solo‘s cancellation, as she admitted during her informal ‘exit interview‘ with Deadline, the Logan Lucky director asserted, “No, it was no surprise that she was frustrated.”
“We were all frustrated. 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.”
“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,” he concluded. “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.”
Notably, though Soderbergh and Driver both believe The Hunt for Ben Solo to be completely off of either Lucasfilm or Disney’s table, Kennedy’s aforementioned interview saw the longtime Hollywood exec offering a bit of hope to the contrary.
Closing out a brief tease of Star Wars‘ future film slate, Kennedy told her host, “As you have read, Steve Soderbergh and Adam Driver turned in a script written by Scott Burns. It was just great. Anything’s a possibility if somebody’s willing to take a risk.”
