Dave Filoni, co-president and chief creative officer of Lucasfilm, has finally opened up about The Hunt for Ben Solo. Cornered on the D23 red carpet by Deadline, he finally had to go on record about the project. His answer? “You know, someone was gonna ask me that in this line. I’m surprised it took this long, so that’s really cool.” He then delivered the unfortunate news: “It’s not here, you won’t find it here. The force is not with us in that regard; I love the love you feel for it.”
But Filoni was right. He knew he was going to be asked about it. And only moments later, Variety also questioned him about it. “We’re not making that picture right now, that’s all I can say,” he answered them.
It’s a little vague, in a way. It’s not a yes, and it’s not a complete no. But given the hype around the project, you can bet that Lucasfilm has to be considering it. It’s the new Snyder Cut movement. And fans have already gone to great lengths to let the studio know that they want The Hunt for Ben Solo greenlit. Organizers have even flown “Save Ben Solo” banners over Disney’s headquarters, hired billboards across Times Square and parked trucks with signage outside San Diego Comic-Con and even The Mandalorian and Grogu premiere.
Even those closest to Star Wars, like Daisy Ridley, Kathleen Kennedy and Rian Johnson, have voiced their support for the film too. Kennedy even called the shelved script “great”.
And given how badly The Mandalorian and Grogu flopped (closing at $345 million worldwide, the lowest-grossing live-action Star Wars film ever), Disney and Lucasfilm could do worse than granting Star Wars fans’ wishes right now. Star Wars needs a big comeback hit. And even though the D23 slate promised that they were heading in the right direction – with the Ahsoka Season 2 trailer and Starfighter teaser – The Hunt for Ben Solo is the type of project that could make fans excited about the fandom again.
But what exactly is it?
In 2025, Adam Driver revealed that he and acclaimed filmmaker Steven Soderbergh (the guy behind Ocean’s Eleven and Traffic) spent two years developing a post-Rise of Skywalker movie titled The Hunt for Ben Solo. And Disney said no.
Speaking to the Associated Press, Driver said the project explored the redemption and survival of his character Kylo Ren after the events of 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker. “I always was interested in doing another Star Wars,” Driver said. “Kathleen Kennedy had reached out. I told her — with a great director and a great story, I’d be there in a second. I loved that character.”
That “great director” turned out to be Soderbergh. Working with Contagion writer Scott Z. Burns and Logan Lucky’s Rebecca Blunt, they put together what Driver called “one of the coolest f*cking scripts I had ever been a part of.” Lucasfilm reportedly loved it too. But Disney did not. When the pitch reached Bob Iger and Alan Bergman, they killed it on the spot. The reasoning is that they “didn’t see how Ben Solo was alive.” You’d think a universe with blue milk and Force ghosts could handle a resurrection, after all, they resurrected Darth Maul and Emperor Palpatine a bunch of times. But apparently not.
Soderbergh later confirmed the story himself: “I really enjoyed making the movie in my head. I’m just sorry the fans won’t get to see it.”
And suddenly, his obsessive Star Wars rewatch last year makes sense. In his 2024 watchlist, fans spotted The Phantom Menace, Andor, and The Rise of Skywalker among the titles. IndieWire even guessed he might be secretly working on a Lucasfilm project. Turns out, he actually was.
It’s hard not to imagine what The Hunt for Ben Solo could’ve been. Soderbergh has a history of turning commercial ideas into very human stories. He made heists elegant, pandemics terrifying, and Channing Tatum a cultural phenomenon. A filmmaker like that could’ve given the galaxy far, far away a much-needed soul transplant.
Since The Rise of Skywalker in 2019, Star Wars has been spinning its wheels. The film slate remains a revolving door of directors and unrealized ideas, while TV keeps pushing forward. Andor proved that a grounded, character-driven story could work. Heck, when the show’s second season wrapped earlier this year, its viewership jumped nearly 30% by the finale —topping 900 million minutes watched in its final week, per Nielsen— which is a rarity for streaming. Tony Gilroy fought budget cuts, lost an entire horror-inspired episode, and still managed to make something powerful. Imagine what Soderbergh could’ve done with that kind of creative freedom.
It’s hard not to sigh out loud when you hear that one of the best directors around and one of the best Star Wars actors put together a film that Disney considered too bold to make. But given that their safer bets aren’t working out anymore, it might be time to take a page out of Star Trek and “boldly go where no man has gone before”.
Maybe one day, The Hunt for Ben Solo will actually become a reality.
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