Dave Filoni has confirmed Lucasfilm is not making The Hunt for Ben Solo, the scrapped Kylo Ren film that Adam Driver and Steven Soderbergh spent two and a half years developing. Asked at D23, the Lucasfilm co-president was clear, if brief.
“It’s not here, you won’t find it here. The force is not with us in that regard; I love the love you feel for it.”
Dave Filoni, Lucasfilm co-president, at D23 2026
The question has become a fixture of Star Wars events. Driver revealed the project’s existence in an October 2025 AP interview: he and Soderbergh had pitched a film set after The Rise of Skywalker, following Ben Solo on a path to redemption. Lucasfilm “loved the idea”, he said. Disney CEO Bob Iger and Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman did not.
“They didn’t see how Ben Solo was alive. And that was that.”
Adam Driver, to the AP, October 2025
Why Disney scrapped The Hunt for Ben Solo
Ben Solo dies at the end of The Rise of Skywalker. Driver argued the script worked around it — “handmade and character-driven”, he called it, with a nod to The Empire Strikes Back. Soderbergh, who spent two and a half years on the project, put it more simply.
“I really enjoyed making the movie in my head. I’m just sorry the fans won’t get to see it.”
Steven Soderbergh
What the fans did about it
The rejection produced one of the more organised campaigns in recent film memory. A banner plane flew over Disney’s Burbank lot reading “Shareholders Want The Hunt for Ben Solo”. In March, skydiver Brenn Richards jumped at Toronto Comic-Con with a “Save the Hunt for Ben Solo” flag and a note for Disney’s new CEO: “Josh D’Amaro, skydiving is risky! But… The Hunt for Ben Solo isn’t!” A digital truck circled Hollywood during The Mandalorian and Grogu’s May premiere, and returned for San Diego Comic-Con last month.
Deadline reports Filoni accompanied the answer with a Jedi mind-trick gesture — a detail the Save Ben Solo campaign will file under “for now”. Variety’s write-up of the exchange carried the words “right now”. The campaign has been running on less.
Is The Hunt for Ben Solo happening?
Not now, per Filoni. Driver, meanwhile, announced at the same D23 that he is back with Disney after all: he will play Mister Sinister in Marvel’s X-Men reboot. Just not in this galaxy.
The news lands a week after Disney’s D23 showcase — and alongside another case of Lucasfilm declining a fan-favourite return: writers say the studio keeps blocking Mara Jade from canon.
What is The Hunt for Ben Solo?
A scrapped Star Wars film pitched by Adam Driver and developed with Steven Soderbergh. It would have followed Ben Solo on a redemption path after the events of The Rise of Skywalker. Driver described it as “handmade and character-driven”.
Why was The Hunt for Ben Solo cancelled?
Disney CEO Bob Iger and Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman rejected it. Driver said: “They didn’t see how Ben Solo was alive” — the character dies at the end of The Rise of Skywalker.
Is Adam Driver returning to Star Wars?
Not in any announced project. At D23 2026, Driver was announced as Mister Sinister in Marvel’s X-Men reboot — back with Disney, but on the Marvel side.
