Disney Rejected Steven Soderbergh’s The Hunt for Ben Solo — Even with a Finished Script

So, that scrapped Star Wars movie that would have brought Adam Driver back as Ben Solo? It was a lot more real than anyone thought. We are not talking about a pitch and a prayer. This thing had a finished script, a budget, a plan, and a start date. And Disney still said no.

What Soderbergh just confirmed

Steven Soderbergh popped up on BlueSky and said Lucasfilm delivered a full, ready-to-go screenplay for a film titled The Hunt for Ben Solo. Disney rejected it. According to what he was told, that had never happened to a Lucasfilm project at that stage before.

In the aftermath of the [Hunt for Ben Solo] situation, I asked Kathy Kennedy if LFL had ever turned in a finished movie script for greenlight to Disney and had it rejected. She said no, this was a first.

How far along it actually was

The Playlist added that it was not just a script. Lucasfilm had the whole package: completed screenplay, budget in place, early prep and staffing underway, and a proposed start date. By all appearances, it was ready to roll.

Where it died and why

Here is where it gets weird. Disney exec Alan Bergman reportedly took an unusually long time to read the script. When he and Bob Iger finally weighed in, their big sticking point was how Ben Solo could still be alive after The Rise of Skywalker kills him off. The script apparently explains that in plain terms, which is why Lucasfilm was caught off guard. Either way, Disney held the line: no movie.

Driver breaks the seal

This whole saga probably would have stayed buried if Adam Driver had not talked about it this week. He made it clear how much he liked what they cooked up.

[It was] one of the coolest (expletive) scripts I had ever been a part of. We presented the script to Lucasfilm. They loved the idea. They totally understood our angle and why we were doing it. We took it to Bob Iger and Alan Bergman and they said no. They did not see how Ben Solo was alive. And that was that. It was called The Hunt for Ben Solo and it was really cool. But it is no more, so I can finally talk about it.

Money, because of course

Neither Soderbergh nor Driver were paid for their time on the project. Scott Z. Burns, who wrote the final script and previously penned Contagion, was reportedly paid north of $3 million.

Fans are already in campaign mode

Fans literally flew a plane over Disney Studios with a banner that read: Save the Hunt for Ben Solo. Too soon to know if that moves the needle, but it does underline that people still very much want more Kylo Ren/Ben Solo.

• Title: The Hunt for Ben Solo, led by Steven Soderbergh with Adam Driver set to return
• Lucasfilm delivered a finished script, budget, and proposed start date; early prep and staffing had begun
• Disney exec Alan Bergman took unusually long to read; he and Bob Iger ultimately passed
• Main concern: how Ben Solo could be alive post-The Rise of Skywalker, despite the script addressing it
• Kathleen Kennedy told Soderbergh it was the first time Disney rejected a finished Lucasfilm script at the greenlight stage
• Adam Driver called it one of the coolest scripts he has worked on
• Soderbergh and Driver were not paid; writer Scott Z. Burns reportedly earned over $3 million
• Fans hired a plane to fly a Save the Hunt for Ben Solo banner over Disney Studios