Driver says the moment for 'The Hunt for Ben Solo' has passed
Seven Lights
Adam Driver said the Star Wars film he developed with the director Steven Soderbergh has lost its chance, because Disney never accepted a premise on which the story depended. “I think that ship has sailed,” Driver said on The Rich Eisen Show.
The project, known as The Hunt for Ben Solo, would have followed the character Driver played in the sequel trilogy as Kylo Ren, resurrected after his death in the 2019 film. Driver portrayed Ben Solo, a fallen Jedi who served the dark side as Kylo Ren, in the trilogy of 2015, 2017 and 2019, and the abandoned film would have reopened an arc the saga had closed. Driver said he and Soderbergh were prepared to make the picture, but the studio’s executives “didn’t see how Ben Solo was alive. And that was that.” The actor said he spent a couple of years developing the film and still considers it “awesome” and “really cool.”
Development of the film found favor with nearly everyone, Driver suggested, except Disney’s chief executive, Bob Iger, and Alan Bergman, chairman of Disney Entertainment. Its collapse drew a fan campaign that surprised the actor. “I didn’t expect that it was going to be billboards and people flying planes over Disney and things like that,” he said. Speaking via Variety, he said he “always was interested in doing another Star Wars” and would take the project up again should the studio change course.
The studio’s announced Star Wars slate moves on without the sequel-generation characters: Starfighter is in the works, and a feature written by Taika Waititi remains in development. Driver’s remarks mark his first public concession that the project’s prospects have lapsed, after two years of development and a fan campaign. They close the most prominent actor-led attempt to extend the sequel trilogy’s central character.