Star Wars fans have grieved the loss of Ben Solo, the franchise’s nepotism-linked villain once known as Kylo Ren, ever since his death in . The fact that this conflicted antagonist perished right after renouncing his ties to the dark side still feels like a betrayal to some — and things got even worse when it was revealed his tragic fate could have been reversed.
Adam Driver first shared this detail in 2025, telling that he’d been secretly collaborating with director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Rebecca Blunt on a story that would bring Ben Solo back to life. When their pitch was approved by Lucasfilm executives, Scott Z. Burns joined to write the script; though it was “one of the coolest” projects Driver had ever been part of, Disney didn’t let the dream last long.
“We took it to Bob Iger and Alan Bergman and they said no,” Driver said. “They didn’t see how Ben Solo was alive. And that was that.”
Driver’s comments understandably sparked a wave of support for . Fans have since launched a campaign to save the film and its title lead from development limbo, some even going so far as to buy billboards in New York’s Times Square. Soderbergh, meanwhile, has revealed more about the film’s potential — and his latest update makes its cancellation all the more bizarre.
“That was two and a half years of free work for me and Adam and Rebecca Blunt,” the director told . “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 [with Disney] 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.”
In a previous post on , Soderbergh revealed that no Lucasfilm project has ever made it to the screenwriting stage only to be canceled by Disney. The conflicting priorities between the two studios have been well-documented, notably by Lucasfilm’s former president Kathleen Kennedy. But nowhere is this clearer than in their differing views on The Hunt for Ben Solo. Disney executives couldn’t even entertain the idea of Solo’s return: sure, Iger and Bergman’s concerns were valid, as the character vanishes completely at the end of Rise of Skywalker. But that disinterest, paired with what seems to be a major miscommunication, ended up wasting everyone’s time. The Hunt for Ben Solo is again the rare exception that gained attention, but the more fans learn about its cancellation, the worse the working relationship between Disney and Lucasfilm appears.