Well, that came out of nowhere, didn’t it? One moment there was nothing and the next thing there’s a social media campaign and banners being flown over the Disney HQ telling the world that ‘Ben Solo lives.’ So, what exactly went down with The Hunt for Ben Solo?
For Adam Driver to speak so openly about this project can mean only one of two things, or both most likely. Firstly, an NDA of some sort must have expired. Secondly, and more difficult to accept for some, this project must well and truly be dead and buried. If there was a faint glimmer of hope of the film being made then Lucasfilm/Disney wouldn’t want their main star spouting news about the project to anyone who will listen and run with it. If it were in active development or pre-production then Disney would want to make an announcement and bring Adam Driver out front and centre for all to see. So, with our business heads on, this project isn’t happening.
This puts Lucasfilm and Driver in a very interesting position. Over the course of the past few weeks since news of this film came about, the villain of the story has been Disney CEO Mr Bob Iger – as, if we believe what we’re told, he was the one who put the brakes on the project. The Hunt for Ben Solo can now become a martyr. Driver and anyone at Lucasfilm can speak for however long they wish about how great this project would have been because we will never see it. They can say it would have been the greatest Star Wars film ever made and we can only take them at their word.
Now, this is where we must take a step back and think logically. Iger was said to have put a halt to the film and cancelled it entirely as he was confused. “Ben Solo is dead,” were said to be his words. This film was set after the events of The Rise of Skywalker, therefore Ben Solo is indeed dead and at one with the Force. There have been fans galore reminding us that “no one’s ever really gone” as they hold out hope. From a Star Wars point of view, Iger isn’t wrong. If Ben Solo were indeed to come back to life, then no other Jedi death matters as, as fans, we would simply cry; “Well what about Luke? Obi-Wan? Yoda?” “Can they all come back to life now and have new stories?” Sadly, as is true in our real lives, death matters. For any of these characters to come back to life from being Force Ghosts would lessen their passing in the story.
There’s also the fact that fans and critics had long been crying out that no death really seemed to matter in Star Wars as everyone seemed to keep popping back up. Darth Maul, Boba Fett and lest we forget, Palpatine, have all made dramatic returns in the past few years. We’re also assuming, of course, that Ben would have come back to the land of the living in the film and that the events of the film didn’t take place in the spirit world.
There’s also something that, I feel, has been missing from the discussion surrounding this film. Iger, a businessman overseeing a multibillion-dollar enterprise, would have surely canned this film based on a business decision. The Sequels, no matter where you stand, gradually decreased in public interest and the numbers sadly dictate that sales in box office and merchandise proved that interest waned. The House of Mouse was keen to move past the Sequel Trilogy and focus on streaming shows instead. By the time The Rise of Skywalker arrived in theatres, we had already moved on. The world had specifically moved onto a cute little green baby to be more precise.
Disney is a business in the business of making money and they’re playing it safe with the next theatrical release of Star Wars on 22nd May2026.
Now I always believed that Ben Solo/Kylo Ren was THE most interesting character of the sequels and I’d love to see his story and character fleshed out. I’d loved to see his struggle and fall to the Dark Side really play out in live-action and especially more focus on his relationship with Luke
So, we’ll have to wait and see as to whether Disney was listening to the fallout that took place since Driver made his announcement. If they were, then could Ben Solo really be back from the dead…again? Only time will tell but if there’s one thing we can still take from a certain farmboy overlooking the twin suns of Tatooine, its to keep hope – for where there’s hope, there’s life.
Until then, the hunt for Ben Solo is down to us.
