Director Steven Soderbergh hasn’t been shy about answering questions related to his scrapped “Star Wars” film, “The Hunt For Ben Solo.” He and actor Adam Driver, who played Kylo Ren/Ben Solo within the sequel trilogy, worked on the project for years before it was ultimately scrapped by Disney.
Before unveiling his latest John Lennon documentary ahead of its Cannes premiere, Soderbergh spoke to Deadline concerning the shelved Ben Solo movie. They asked what other major franchise could “tempt” him; nevertheless, it appears that evidently the director has absolutely no plans to create one other franchise film after his cope with Lucasfilm fell apart.
“It’s not coming to mind … I’m not a snob, clearly,” Soderbergh said. “You may see that from my list of credits. [But] the sensation needs to be, ‘I can’t bear the thought of any person else doing this. I’m the person to do that.’ It needs to be that.”
“So given my background, there are only certain genres that I’m not steeped in: Didn’t read that stuff, wasn’t exposed to that stuff. what I mean?” he continued. “I didn’t buy or read comic books, for example. In order that whole space, I don’t have an issue with it — it’s just not in my DNA, and I wouldn’t be good at it.”
Soderbergh Thought His Scrapped ‘Star Wars’ Film Would Be ‘The Biggest Thing’ He Ever Made
In an interview with The Day by day Beast, Soderbergh admitted that he had been taking over smaller projects over the past few years and thought that a visit to a galaxy far, far-off could be the sort of ambitious project he was searching for.
“Star Wars was going to occupy that slot. That was going to be the most important thing I’ve ever attempted to make. And I used to be enthusiastic about working on a giant canvas,” he said. “, it’s been some time. I’ve got other stuff that I’m attempting to get going that’ll satisfy that desire.”
He admitted that he had been working on the canceled “Star Wars” film for a “very long time,” but compared complaining about its cancellation to “complaining concerning the weather,” adding, “You only need to figure it out.”
Steven Soderbergh Has No Plans To Return To A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Although some “Star Wars” fans are hopeful that the script may someday get made, Steven Soderbergh told The Playlist that the film is dead, saying, “Look, if it was gonna occur, it could have happened.”
“It’s that easy,” he added, giving a transparent “Nope” when asked if he would ever return to the project.
Nonetheless, he said that he had no regrets about working on the project. “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 so that you can be in that room and dealing on it. It’s like CrossFit—it’s good for you. It’ll have a residual effect that will probably be unexpected in some unspecified time in the future.”
Soderbergh Reveals The Idea Got here From Adam Driver
Through the same interview, Soderbergh also revealed that Driver was the one who had brought up the thought of constructing one other movie focused on the character. “It was strictly Adam saying, ‘I believe there’s still somewhere to go together with this character.’ That’s the way it began,” Soderbergh revealed.
While chatting with Variety, he revealed that Driver “felt bad” about getting him involved within the project, just for it to be shut down.
“Adam felt bad for having gotten me into it. I believe he felt like he wasted my time, and I made it clear to him, ‘Dude, that was not wasted time.’ It’s a problem-solving experience that may get applied to every thing I do going forward,” Soderbergh said.
“I’m not upset,” he continued. “I feel positive about every thing that we did together.”
Steven Soderbergh Is Still ‘Disenchanted’ About How It All Played Out
Although he doesn’t consider it wasted time, he told the BK Mag that they were “all frustrated” that the film was canceled after that they had already written the script.
“, that was two and a half years of free work for me and Adam and [writer] Rebecca Blunt,” he explained. “When Adam and I discussed him talking about it publicly, I said, ‘Look, don’t editorialize or speculate concerning the why. Just say what happened, because all we all know is what happened.’ The stated reason was, ‘We don’t think Ben Solo could possibly be alive.’ And that was all we were told. And so there’s nothing to do about it, , except move on.”
“I’d sort of made the movie in my head, and just felt bad that no person else was going to get to see it,” he continued. “I believed the conversation was strictly going to be a practical one—where they go, what is that this going to cost? And I had a extremely good answer for that. But it surely never even got to that time. It’s insane. We’re all very dissatisfied.”
Adam Driver Revealed The Film’s Existence In October 2025
In October 2025, Driver told AP News that he was “all the time interested” in doing one other film in a galaxy far, far-off and worked on the thought with Soderbergh after Kathleen Kennedy had “reached out.”
They presented a script, written by Scott Z. Burns, to Kennedy, Lucasfilm vp Cary Beck, and Lucasfilm chief creative officer Dave Filoni.
“We presented the script to Lucasfilm. They loved the thought. They totally understood our angle and why we were doing it,” Driver explained. “We took it to Bob Iger and Alan Bergman, and so they said no. They didn’t see how Ben Solo was alive. And that was that.”
Although many fans are dissatisfied that Disney canceled “The Hunt For Ben Solo,” the franchise recently returned to theaters for the primary time in years. “The Mandalorian & Grogu” was the primary movie released since 2019’s “The Rise of Skywalker.” It is going to be followed by “Star Wars: Starfighter,” which is scheduled to hit theaters in May 2027.