The Hunt for Ben Solo: Should Star Wars Move On?

Adam Driver thinks “The Hunt for Ben Solo” has missed its chance to leave the hangar. The actor behind Kylo Ren, whose other credits include Marriage Story and BlacKkKlansman, says his proposed return to Star Wars is effectively over after over two years of development with director Steven Soderbergh.

“I think the ship has sailed,” Driver said during his Nov. 4 appearance on “The Rich Eisen Show, adding that a revival is not his call, but he’d be fine with it if Disney wanted one.

For supporters who bought billboards and flew banners asking Disney to reconsider, that is a miserable departure announcement. For everybody else, it raises a question worth asking before we start another petition.

Did Kathleen Kennedy make that rotten of a choice, making Han take a nose dive into the abyss? Wasn’t Kylo Ren supposed to be this generation’s Darth Vader? Did Star Wars need Ben Solo back, or does it need a reason to move on?

Only the Force knows.

The Hunt for Ben Solo was more than a passing pitch

The project had serious people behind it. Soderbergh, the filmmaker responsible for “Traffic” and “Ocean’s Eleven,” developed the story with Driver and collaborators before screenwriter Scott Z. Burns (“Contagion,” “The Bourne Ultimatum”) wrote the script.

And yes, because he is the trending savior in The Batman Part II, his involvement warrants attention.

According to Driver’s original account to The Associated Press in October 2025s, then-Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy, creative executive Carrie Beck and Dave Filoni were interested. Lucasfilm liked the script. Disney executives Bob Iger and Alan Bergman declined, with Driver saying they could not see how Ben was alive after “The Rise of Skywalker.”

That distinction matters. “The Hunt for Ben Solo” belongs among the projects Kennedy supported, however one evaluates her leadership.

Driver described the intended approach as “handmade and character-driven,” with an emphasis on spending less than most Star Wars films. Those ambitions make the proposal worth taking seriously. So does Soderbergh’s ability to serve a distinctive filmmaking vision.

We still haven’t read the screenplay. Admiring the people holding it cannot tell us whether Disney rejected a masterpiece, a fascinating gamble or a story that never solved its central problem.

A billboard can prove devotion, but can it fill a theater?

The campaign for “The Hunt for Ben Solo” is real. Its organizers describe international poster efforts and Times Square billboards. Driver acknowledged supporters’ extraordinary efforts in his latest interview.

Those fans deserve to have their enthusiasm represented honestly. They also cannot stand in for everyone who might buy a ticket. An aerial banner indicates that someone paid for it. The opening weekend remains slightly more complicated.

The available polling offers context, although it comes with substantial limitations. A YouGov survey published in December 2019 found that 2% of British Star Wars fans selected Kylo Ren as their favorite villain, compared with 51% for Darth Vader.

That survey preceded the release of “The Rise of Skywalker,” including Ben’s final redemption. It measured a favorite villain, not interest in a future film. Treating it as proof that nobody wants Ben back would be statistical cosplay.

Neither does the sequel trilogy’s declining worldwide box office settle the matter. “The Force Awakens” earned approximately $2.07 billion, “The Last Jedi” $1.33 billion and “The Rise of Skywalker” $1.07 billion. Those figures show diminishing theatrical returns across the trilogy, but cannot isolate Driver’s appeal.

No current representative survey of demand for this particular film was found in the research for this article. Its commercial audience remains unproven. So does the assertion that only the most obsessive fans would care.

Lucasfilm has given fans reasons to be suspicious

Kennedy’s tenure produced “Rogue One” and “Andor,” which makes a blanket dismissal difficult to sustain. Both found extraordinary dramatic value in a story whose outcome audiences already knew.

“Rogue One” is a mesmerizing bridge into “A New Hope” because crossing it changes the view. The stolen plans acquire a human cost. The rebellion becomes something people suffered to build. “Andor” gives that sacrifice still more weight by following the compromises, loyalties and ordinary lives beneath the machinery of revolt.

“Solo,” by comparison, left this viewer with too many answers to questions that hadn’t been keeping anybody awake. Its late-film reveal of Maul’s control over Crimson Dawn seemed to offer a more intriguing movie somewhere beyond the one we had just watched.

The Maul appearance came before the credits. The feeling of being sold the next attraction arrived right on schedule.

Other projects added to the uncertainty. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the creators of “Game of Thrones” and “3 Body Problem,” were announced for new Star Wars films in 2018 and departed the following year. “The Acolyte” ended after one season.

Different projects, different circumstances. Together, they help explain why another tantalizing proposal receives something less than unconditional trust. For “The Hunt for Ben Solo,” that skepticism is a reasonable starting point. Declaring victory over its rejection would be premature.

Ben Solo Would Need to Live With What Kylo Ren Did

Here is the strongest case for bringing him back.

“The Rise of Skywalker” allows Ben to turn away from evil, save Rey and die. Survival could force him into a far less comfortable situation. He could regret everything and still encounter people who want him imprisoned. His victims would have no obligation to regard a change of heart as adequate restitution.

That is a story with consequences worth exploring. A former Supreme Leader trying to exist in the galaxy he helped brutalize could give Driver extraordinary material.

It is also our hypothetical, rather than a disclosed synopsis of “The Hunt for Ben Solo.”

Star Wars has already asked audiences to accept enough returns from apparent death that another resurrection ought to offer something more persuasive than mere familiarity.

The filmmakers may have had that answer. Their enthusiasm gives us a reason to wonder. The publicly available details leave the answer unknown.

Another Sith Lord Would Need a Story, Too

There are other corners of this galaxy worth visiting. One absolutely should happen if Disney still can’t decide how to continue the Solo/Original Star Wars conflation.

Darth Bane established the Rule of Two, reorganizing the Sith around a master who holds power and an apprentice who covets it. That premise contains its own poison: teaching a successor while preparing for betrayal.

A focused story about that relationship could explore ambition, dependency and the institution that makes murder a succession plan. It would give the dark side a different dramatic setting, far from the Skywalker family’s ongoing estate dispute.

For clarity, Kylo Ren himself was neither Jedi nor Sith. A Bane story would explore a different tradition and period.

But pulling another name from Wookieepedia would prove very little. A red lightsaber and a deep lore entry can become another invitation to wait for the interesting part in the sequel.

“The Hunt for Ben Solo” might have offered a compelling reason to return. Its rejection might also have spared Star Wars another expensive attempt to revisit unfinished emotional business. Without the script, neither conclusion can be established. My inclination is to let Ben rest. His ending has flaws, but returning to that argument would need to earn its place ahead of the stories this enormous galaxy has barely begun to tell.

What fans can reasonably ask of the next film is a story that changes how they see this galaxy, whether it follows someone familiar or someone they have never met.

Driver thinks the ship has sailed. Before Star Wars books another departure, it would help to know where it wants to go.