Star Wars Teases Hunt For Ben Solo Film U-Turn, Viewers Lose It
Topics: Star Wars, TV And Film, Disney
Featured Image Credit: Disney
Topics: Star Wars, TV And Film, Disney
Back in 2025, it was revealed that a movie dedicated to Ben Solo was in production, giving fans a standalone movie dedicated to one of Star Wars most complex antagonists.
In October, Kylo / Ben actor Adam Driver revealed that the project had been in the works for over two years and despite being a Star Wars movie with a much smaller budget, it was “one of the coolest scripts I had ever been a part of”.
Driver, who portrayed Kylo Ren, aka Ben Solo, in the Star Wars sequel trilogy was ultimately killed off in 2019’s Rise of Skywalker.
However, this standalone movie, reported to have been called The Hunt For Ben Solo, would have given the character a more fleshed-out redemption arc.
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Set to be directed by Steven Soderbergh, who is best known for his work on Ocean’s Eleven, Driver said that The Hunt For Ben Solo is “the standard of what a Star Wars movie should be”.
Unfortunately, fans were left feeling disappointed after it was revealed that Lucasfilm executives Kathleen Kennedy, Dave Filoni and Cary Beck had rejected the project, despite initially loving the idea.
“We presented the script to Lucasfilm,” Driver said. “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.”
With Kylo Ren being one of the most divisive antagonists in Star Wars history, it makes sense that fans were left feeling disappointed with the cancellation.
However, hope is not lost according to a recent comment by Kennedy herself.
Kennedy, who will be stepping down as the President of Lucasfilm, recently spoke to Deadline about the progress of the Star Wars movies currently in the works.
When asked about The Hunt For Ben Solo, she reiterated that the script was very promising and despite no longer being in active production, “anything’s a possibility if somebody’s willing to take a risk”.
So this begs the question: will Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan, Kennedy’s replacements, give The Hunt For Ben Solo a chance or will this project forever remain unfinished?
If it was up to fans, the project would be back in active development, especially with many Star Wars lovers campaigning to save the movie.
However, one fan over on r/StarWars summed up the situation perfectly.
“I thought killing Ben off was a waste,” they shared. “The one thing that could’ve potentially redeemed episode nine for me was if he had to deal with the fallout for his villainy for the rest of his life. That’s something that we don’t get to see very often.”
However, they can also see the downside of this.
“That said, resurrecting him would be another example of Disney / Lucasfilm hastily course-correcting because they have absolutely no idea what they’re doing.
“Considering how low the bar is at this point, honestly, I probably wouldn’t have minded just because I want something good out of this franchise’s core cast for once.”
At the time of writing, The Hunt For Ben Solo still remains scrapped.
Although with the hopeful closing words from Kennedy herself, maybe not all hope is lost after all.