As the Kathleen Kennedy era comes to a close and a new chapter in the history of Lucasfilm begins under the stewardship of Lynwen Brennan and Dave Filoni, director Steven Soderbergh has once again voiced his frustration at the way The Hunt For Ben Solo – a project he, alongside Rebecca Blunt and Adam Driver, worked on for two and a half years – had the door closed in its face.
“We were all frustrated,” Soderbergh said. “You know, that was two and a half years of free work for me and Adam and [writer] Rebecca Blunt. When Adam and I discussed him talking about it publicly, I said, ‘Look, do not editorialize or speculate about the why. Just say what happened, because all we know is what happened.’ The stated reason was, ‘We don’t think Ben Solo could be alive.’ And that was all we were told. And so there’s nothing to do about it, you know, except move on.”
“I’d kind of made the movie in my head, and just felt bad that nobody else was going to get to see it,” the director continued. “I thought the conversation was strictly going to be a practical one—where they go, what is this going to cost? And I had a really good answer for that. But it never even got to that point. It’s insane. We’re all very disappointed.”
With the aforementioned new era about to begin, new leadership at Disney in place and a lot of interest from the fandom, there’s always the chance that the film could be revived – it’s got to be worth a try.
