Last year, Star Wars fans were surprised to learn that Adam Driver and filmmaker Steven Soderbergh had been quietly developing The Hunt for Ben Solo. Written by Scott Z. Burns, the project was reportedly met with enthusiasm by Lucasfilm.
The Hunt for Ben Solo was close to being made 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. Fans have campaigned for the movie to get another chance, but there's nothing to suggest that Disney and new Lucasfilm President Dave Filoni will resurrect the movie.
The Playlist (via SFFGazette.com) recently caught up with Soderbergh and asked whether, with Filoni now running Lucasfilm and Josh D'Amaro, he would be open to revisiting The Hunt for Ben Solo.
"Nope," the filmmaker replied before expanding on the process of developing The Rise of Skywalker follow-up.
"Well, I don’t want to say [Andor had no influence], because then it makes it seem like, you know, 'I watched 'Andor,' and it had absolutely no impact on me,' which is not true; it was great," Soderbergh added. "But this was [all] before 'Andor' aired. Adam and I started talking, and this would have been almost three years ago now."
"It was strictly Adam saying, 'I think there’s still somewhere to go with this character.' That’s how it started. Otherwise, I never in a million years would have found myself in that universe again. I don’t regret one minute of the time we spent working on that. I felt the work was good."
As for how he felt about seeing the project ultimately slip through his fingers, the filmmaker mused, "As soon as it became apparent, OK, not gonna happen, I sat down and started writing [something else]. It’s like, 'OK, new scenario, let’s get cracking.' At a certain point, it’s like complaining about the weather. You just gotta keep moving. Look, if it was gonna happen, it would have happened. It’s that simple."
So, the moment may have passed for The Hunt for Ben Solo, but with future movies expected to take place primarily after the Star Wars sequel trilogy, Kylo Ren's story could still be revisited somehow. It depends on what Filoni has planned for the franchise and the types of stories he's interested in telling.
Someone who fully believes that the Ahsoka showrunner is the right man for the job is Luke Skywalker actor and screen icon, Mark Hamill. Talking to USA Today, he said that he "can’t think of better hands" for Star Wars to be in than Filoni's.
Saying the filmmaker understands the franchise "so well," Hamill pointed out, "George was a mentor to Dave, so he knows George’s sensibility."
Hamill has been vocal about his problems with how Luke's story was handled in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, but it was Filoni (and Jon Favreau) who gave him another chance in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, which Hamill described as "great stuff" in this interview.
Keep checking back here for updates on Filoni's plans for the Star Wars franchise as we have them.