This is why we can’t have nice things. Because it seems like there is always somebody, somewhere, ready to ruin it for everyone. In an interesting sounding take, Star Wars sequel villain / not villain actor Adam Driver has revealed that something with potential was nixed.
He worked with Steven Soderbergh for two years developing a script for a Star Wars spin-off film – The Hunt For Ben Solo.
It was to take place after The Rise Of Skywalker and, according to an interview with the Associated Press, it followed Driver’s character Kylo Ren, aka Ben Solo, on a search for redemption. It was described as “handmade and character-driven”, closer in tone to parts of The Empire Strikes Back than anything else in the canon.
Things were so serious that they built out the story with Logan Lucky screenwriter Rebecca Blunt and Contagion screenwriter Scott Z. Burns. Driver said:
“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.”
Soderbergh and Driver pitched The Hunt for Ben Solo together to Kathleen Kennedy, Dave Filoni and Cary Beck at Lucasfilm. They were all in. Then they took the script to Disney for approval:
“We presented the script to Lucasfilm. 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. I really enjoyed making the movie in my head. I’m just sorry the fans won’t get to see it. [It was] one of the coolest (expletive) scripts I had ever been a part of.”
This, however, is what happens when you are part of Super-Mega-Globo-Corp Inc. and you lose your licence to operate within that political structure after some cock-ups.
