Last year, Star Wars fans were left reeling when it was revealed that Adam Driver and filmmaker Steven Soderbergh had been quietly developing The Hunt for Ben Solo...and that the movie wouldn't happen.
The Hunt for Ben Solo was close to becoming a reality and was even ready to shoot when Lucasfilm took it to Disney to get a green light. However, for the first time in the Star Wars studio's history, Bob Iger and Alan Bergman turned down a project ready to begin production.
The movie was set to reveal that Kylo Ren had somehow survived his run-in with Emperor Palpatine. With that, it would serve as a direct follow-up to the sequel trilogy that explored what Ben Solo's redemption looked like with the First Order and his time as Supreme Leader behind him.
Fans quickly campaigned for the movie to get another chance, but all signs point to Disney and new Lucasfilm President Dave Filoni leaving The Hunt for Ben Solo on the shelf.
In an interview with Rich Eisen (via SFFGazette.com), Driver was asked where things stand with the project and replied, "Yeah, it's over. No more Star Wars. We tried. We tried to do one more. They were like, 'No, he's dead.' We worked on it... Steven Soderbergh was going to do it. We worked on it for a few years."
"Really and earnestly, for two years we got a script together that was really good with Scott Burns and Rebecca Blunt, and Soderbergh and I. We all worked on it. It was awesome. It was really cool. I don't get to decide."
"If they wanted to, fine, but it's not our call. I think the ship has sailed, though," he said, leaving the door ajar before closing it again. "The fan response to it was pretty incredible. I didn't expect that it was going to be billboards and people flying planes over Disney and things like that. That was pretty cool."
The moment may have passed for The Hunt for Ben Solo, but with Simon Kinberg and Jon Watts' Star Wars Episode X set to continue the Skywalker Saga, Kylo Ren's story could still be revisited somehow. It depends on what Filoni has planned for this next trilogy and the types of stories he's interested in telling.
It's hard to shake the feeling that Lucasfilm made a huge mistake by passing on the movie, but Ben's story continuing in any form would go a long way in winning over unhappy fans. For now, though, it seems nothing has changed since last year.
You can hear Driver's comments in full in the player below.