Steven Soderbergh Disappoints ‘Star Wars’ Fans With Adam Driver’s Ben Solo Movie Update

Fans looking forward to Adam Driver's Ben Solo "Star Wars" movie got a disappointing update from the film's director. The Steven Soderbergh Disappoints ‘Star Wars’ Fans With Adam Driver’s Ben Solo Movie Update first appeared on The Blast

Director Steven Soderbergh has a disappointing update for “Star Wars” fans hoping to see Adam Driver reprise his role as Ben Solo in a future movie. The villainous Kylo Ren, who first appeared in 2015’s “The Force Awakens,” was later redeemed in 2019’s “The Rise of Skywalker,” which was also the last “Star Wars” film released in theaters. Although Ben Solo seemingly passed away at the end of the sequel trilogy, Driver and Soderbergh had an idea to continue Ben’s story. Unfortunately, top Disney execs did not, leading to the film’s cancellation. Despite a significant fan campaign to get the movie back on track, especially with changes in both Lucasfilm and Disney’s leadership, Soderbergh revealed that the movie is “done” and that he has moved on to other projects.

Disney’s Leadership Change Won’t Help Ben Solo’s Future

In January, Kathleen Kennedy stepped down as President of Lucasfilm and was replaced by Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan. Two months later, Josh D’Amaro officially succeeded Bob Iger as Disney CEO. With so much change in leadership, “Star Wars” fans were hopeful that the Ben Solo film, tentatively dubbed “The Hunt for Ben Solo,” would finally come to fruition.

Unfortunately, that does not seem to be the case. While promoting his upcoming film “The Christophers,” director Steven Soderbergh told The Playlist that the film is dead, saying, “Look, if it was gonna happen, it would have happened.”

“It’s that simple,” he added, giving a clear “Nope” when asked if he would ever return to the project.

‘Andor’ Had Nothing To Do With The Ben Solo Movie

Soderbergh was also asked about a fan rumor suggesting that Tony Gilroy’s highly successful Disney+ series “Andor” sparked the idea of bringing Ben Solo back to life. Soderbergh shot that idea down, saying that conversations with Driver had actually started before the “Andor” premiere.

“Well, I don’t want to say [it 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,” he explained. “But this was [all] before ‘Andor’ aired. Adam and I started talking, and this would have been almost three years ago now.”

Steven Soderbergh Doesn’t Regret His Work On His Scrapped ‘Star Wars’ Film

Soderbergh still valued the project as a valuable creative exercise, even if it is no longer moving forward.

“I don’t regret one minute of the time we spent working on that,” he said. “I felt the work was good. It’s just good for you to be in that room and working on it. It’s like CrossFit—it’s good for you. It’ll have a residual effect that will be unexpected at some point.”

Instead of lingering on regrets, it seems Soderbergh is taking a page out of Kylo Ren’s book and is ready to “let the past die” and move on to other projects.

“As soon as it became apparent, OK, not gonna happen, I sat down and started writing [something else],” Soderbergh said. “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.”

Steven Soderbergh Reveals The Ben Solo Movie Was Adam Driver’s Idea

In the interview, Soderbergh revealed that the idea to revisit the character of Ben Solo actually came from the “Marriage Story” actor himself.

“It was strictly Adam saying, ‘I think there’s still somewhere to go with this character.’ That’s how it started,” Soderbergh revealed. “Otherwise, I never in a million years would have found myself in that universe again.”

Adam Driver First Revealed The Film’s Existence In October 2025

In October 2025, Adam Driver first revealed the existence of “The Hunt for Ben Solo” in a conversation with AP News while promoting his film “Father Mother Sister Brother.”

Soderbergh and Rebecca Blunt outlined a story that the group then pitched to Kennedy, Filoni, and Lucasfilm vice president Cary Beck. After getting their approval, Scott Z. Burns wrote the script.

“We presented the script to Lucasfilm. They loved the idea. They totally understood our angle and why we were doing it,” Driver said. “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.”

The Steven Soderbergh Disappoints ‘Star Wars’ Fans With Adam Driver’s Ben Solo Movie Update first appeared on The Blast