Adam Driver’s “The Hunt for Ben Solo” Was Rejected + Plus the Larger Problem with Disney & Lucasfilm’s Strategies!

Adam Driver’s “The Hunt for Ben Solo” Was Rejected + Plus the Larger Problem with Disney & Lucasfilm’s Strategies! 

This week has been an interesting one for Star Wars fans, which means we’re getting a couple of Star Wars related blog posts this week. The first one discusses Adam Driver’s recent interview where he revealed he was working on a Ben Solo Star Wars movie after The Rise of Skywalker released. What do I think about this? Let’s talk about it! 

Adam Driver’s Quotes: “I always was interested in doing another Star Wars. I have been talking about another one since 2021. Katheleen Kennedy had reached out…We (Steven Soderbergh and Drive) presented the script to Lucasfilm. They loved the idea. They totally understood our angle and why we were doing it. We took it to Bog Iger and Alan Bergman and they said no. They didn’t see how Ben Solo was alive. And that was that. It is no more, so I can finally talk about it.”

My Thoughts

Ever since these quotes came out people have been very open about their thoughts and frustrations. A lot of the frustrations were blamed towards Bob Iger for saying no to this idea. When Driver says “they didn’t see how Ben Solo was alive” I find it to be kind of stupid considering Star Wars has always found ways to bring back the dead. They did this most recently in The Rise of Skywalker with Palpatine. Poe Dameron was one of the most infamous Star Wars lines of all time “somehow Palpatine has returned”. They even found a way to bring Darth Maul back. The fact that Iger and Disney didn’t understand how Ben Solo would return is stupid. They easily could’ve found a way, but they decided not to. 

Overall, I think this would’ve been very cool and something I’d like to have seen. The big reason is both Ben Solo and Adam Driver. Say what you will about the sequel trilogy, there’s a lot of problems. I think Ben Solo/Kylo Ren was probably the best character. They gave him an interesting redemption arc that was something different in Star Wars. The little moments of Ben Solo we got in Rise of Skywalker I think was very cool and I wish we got more of it. I think his arc was a victim of their not being a plan for the sequel trilogy. But getting a movie where we see more of the redemption arc I think would’ve been very cool. The other thing is that if Adam Driver is interested in this project then I’m interested. Of the main actors from the sequel trilogy he probably has the best career where’s gone for prestige work with top tier directors like Spike Lee, Ridley Scott, Michael Mann, Francis Ford Coppola, and many others. Over the last couple of years it’s been very clear that he’s pursuing top tier prestigious directors. The fact that he’d want to return to Star Wars when he could do whatever he wants makes me very curious about what this movie was and what about the project drew him to it.

Beyond that, Steven Soderbergh was the director interested in telling this story. Soderbergh has an Oscar to his name and has directed multiple Best Picture nominees. He’s directed a few Oscar nomination performances. This isn’t just some random director, he’s done a lot of very cool and good films over the years. Even Scott Z. Burns was the attached screenwriter for the film. He’s collaborated with Soderbergh many times over the decades, he also wrote The Bourne Ultimatium, and he was one of the people that came in and fixed Rogue One’s script and helped turn it into the film we have today. There was a lot of talent that was very interested in this film and I think it’s a shame that this film will probably never happen.

The Bigger Problem w/Lucasfilm and Disney

I think this project’s update is proof that Disney and Lucasfilm are very flawed studios that need to change things. For years, for almost a decade now Lucasfilm has been recruiting top tier talent to work for them. The Game of Thrones people were going to direct a film. Boba Fett was going to be a movie but then got turned into a tv show. There’s so much stuff that has been announced over the years but ultimately been canceled because Kathleen Kennedy is terrible at running Lucasfilm. She needs to be gone, somebody new needs to come and try and fix Lucasfilm and Star Wars. 

Another thing that was put out there a couple days after this, David Fincher pitched a Star Wars movie set after Rise of Skywalker, but they wouldn’t give Fincher the final cut or anything in the film which is stupid. David Fincher is one of the most celebrated directors of the last 30 years. If Disney wasn’t going to give him creative freedom to do whatever he wants in the world of Star Wars, they’re sure not going to give some up and coming talent creative freedom. The fact that Disney is so corporate focused and not director focused is making it hard for them to find creative and unique voices. The fact that within the last 5 years both Soderbergh and Fincher were denied to make a Star Wars film is crazy to me.

Instead of Soderbergh and Fincher bringing a fresh new voice to the world of Star Wars, they’re taking safe bets. In May we’re getting the first Star Wars movie in seven years, it’s The Mandalorian & Grogu. That just feels like such a safe bet that it’s easy to get people excited because it’s a world and characters that people know and love but that doesn’t make it an interesting film to come out.