Star Wars Rise of Skywalker Sequel Surfaces, Is Everything We Want

The sequel trilogy might not have played out quite the way Disney intended, and audience reaction was pretty poor in response, but there were some genuine narrative threads that had a lot of potential for both new and longtime Star Wars fans.

Whether it be genuinely interesting characters or mysterious organisations like the Knights of Ren (whose origin is still very much up for debate), it's a shame that so many of the recent Star Wars releases have been so short-lived, if they ever made it out into the wild at all.

And it's that latter category that we're interested in today, as it has now emerged that we very nearly got an entirely different movie after the release of Rise of Skywalker, and we're very disappointed it never managed to get off the ground.

In an interview with the AP, Kylo Ren actor Adam Driver shared how he was always very open to returning to the character, saying, "I always was interested in doing another ‘Star Wars.’ I had been talking about doing another one since 2021. 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.”

He then went on to detail exactly how close it was to becoming a reality, "We presented the script to Lucasfilm. They loved the idea. They totally understood our angle and why we were doing it,” Driver said. “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,” Driver added. “But it is no more, so I can finally talk about it.”

Steven Soderbergh was also signed on to direct and seemingly was just as disappointed that Bob Iger didn't see the potential in the story they presented, saying, "I really enjoyed making the movie in my head. I’m just sorry the fans won’t get to see it.”

Bearing in mind the logical hoops that the writing team on the sequel trilogy had to jump through to bring Palpatine back from the dead, it feels odd that this was a bridge too far for the head honchos at Disney.

That said, perhaps fan reaction to the now infamous "Somehow, Palpatine returned" line might have had something to do with it.