Steven Soderbergh is once again talking about the hunt for The Hunt For Ben Solo, as the director spoke to BK Mag this week about the secret Star Wars movie he spent more than two years developing with star Adam Driver, writer Rebecca Blunt, and executives at Lucasfilm—only to have the movie be abruptly killed when Bob Iger and other executives at Disney told them they didn’t understand how the former Kylo Ren could be alive in the aftermath of The Rise Of Skywalker.
“You know, that was two and a half years of free work for me and Adam and Rebecca Blunt,” Soderbergh said of the project, noting that “We were all frustrated.” Soderbergh also makes it clear that he and Driver had talked about the actor’s decision to reveal the movie’s existence last year, telling his star “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.”
Soderbergh—who’s expressed his frustration and bewilderment at the decision before—said that he’d actually geared up for all the usual arguments with executives in his head, only to have the whole issue get shut down by Disney without any conversation at all. “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.”
Driver broke the news about The Hunt For Ben Solo in October of 2025, announcing that he and his old Logan Lucky director had gotten a greenlight on the project from Kathleen Kennedy’s Lucasfilm, only for the parent company to ignore their recommendation. (Kennedy briefly spoke about the script during interviews surrounding her exit from the company back in January, calling the script “great” and adding “Anything’s a possibility if somebody’s willing to take a risk.”) News of the project’s existence has mobilized Star Wars/Kylo Ren fans, who ran Times Square billboards and planes flying banners to call for the company to “Save #TheHuntForBenSolo.” (So far, Disney has declined to save The Hunt For Ben Solo—or even really acknowledge its existence.)