Prolific director Steven Soderbergh has no beef with Adam Driver. The Oscar-winning director, who found success with the Ocean’s trilogy, was working on a movie featuring Ben Solo, a personality who played a outstanding role within the “Star Wars” sequel trilogy. Although the character supposedly died at the tip of 2019’s “The Rise of Skywalker,” the actor had an idea to bring the character back. After initially getting approval from Lucasfilm, the concept was scrapped by Disney heads, and the project is, in keeping with Soderbergh, officially dead.
Steven Soderbergh Clears The Air
While promoting his latest movie, “The Christophers,” Variety couldn’t pass up a probability to ask him about his canceled “Star Wars” film. After they asked him what he learned from attempting to get the movie made, he replied, “That there’s no such thing as wasted time.”
“It was great to work on that with Adam Driver and [writers] Rebecca Blunt and Scott Burns,” he continued. “Sometimes that’s just the way in which things go. I do know what we got here up with was good. I feel it could have excited audiences. Working with smart people, trying to unravel sh-t, is the way you recuperate.”
Steven Soderbergh Claims Adam Driver ‘Felt Bad’
Within the interview, Soderbergh revealed that Driver “felt bad” about involving him, only to see the project find yourself on the cutting-room floor.
“Adam felt bad for having gotten me into it. I feel 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 can get applied to all the pieces I do going forward,” Soderbergh said.
“I’m not upset. I feel positive about all the pieces that we did together,” he added.
‘If It Was Gonna Occur, It Would Have Happened’
In a separate interview with The Playlist, Soderbergh confirmed that the movie was dead, saying, “Look, if it was gonna occur, it could have happened.” He also reiterated that he didn’t feel that the project wasted his time.
“I don’t regret one minute of the time we spent working on that,” he explained. “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 can be unexpected sooner or later.”
“As soon because it became apparent, OK, not gonna occur, I sat down and commenced writing [something else],” Soderbergh said. “It’s like, ‘OK, latest scenario, let’s get cracking.’ At a certain point, it’s like complaining concerning the weather. You simply gotta keep moving.”
Soderbergh Says The Story Idea Was Adam Driver’s Idea
Even though it isn’t clear exactly what the movie would have been about, Soderbergh revealed that the concept for the movie actually got here from the actor.
“It was strictly Adam saying, ‘I feel there’s still somewhere to go together with this character.’ That’s the way it began,” Soderbergh revealed. “Otherwise, I never in 1,000,000 years would have found myself in that universe again.”
But when asked if he would ever return to the project again, Soderbergh gave a quite simple: “Nope.”
Steven Soderbergh Is ‘Frustrated’ Over The Film’s Cancellation
This isn’t the primary time that Soderbergh has addressed the film’s cancellation. In a February 2026 interview with BK Mag, the director said they were “all frustrated” that the film was scrapped before they might even discuss a budget.
“You recognize, 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, you recognize, except move on.”
“I’d sort of made the movie in my head, and just felt bad that no one else was going to get to see it,” he continued. “I assumed the conversation was strictly going to be a practical one—where they go, what is that this going to cost? And I had a very good answer for that. But it surely never even got to that time. It’s insane. We’re all very disenchanted.”