In a new update for The Hunt for Ben Solo, the movie that Adam Driver developed with Steven Soderbergh and collaborators for two years at Lucasfilm, a report from The Playlist suggests that Lucasfilm was already about to enter pre-production, with a fully finished script, and it was then that they took it to Bob Iger and Alan Bergman, who dismissed it much more quickly than they expected. Soderberg himself has confirmed it was the first fully conceptualized idea Kennedy ever took to Iger that the CEO then said no to.
According to the report, the script by Scott Z. Burns was completed. It hailed from a pitch by Steven Soderbergh and Rebecca Blunt (the alias used by Soderbergh’s wife, Jules Asner). Burns, who received $3M for writing the script, is Lucasfilm’s highest-paid writer yet. The movie (which had the internal codename of Quiet Leaves) was a concept that the people at Lucasfilm were quite excited about. Kathleen Kennedy gave it her stamp of approval, while CCO Dave Filoni and head of development Carrie Beck were also closely involved in the process. The report describes it as being in the “ready to shoot” phase, and as part of the pitch to Disney, they even proposed a filming start date.
Unfortunately, a lack of creativity on the part of people in Disney’s C-suite above Kennedy is apparently to blame for why The Hunt for Ben Solo didn’t move forward, despite all the momentum that it had going for it. Alan Bergman, Disney Entertainment co-Chairman and Kathleen Kennedy’s immediate superior, took an unusually long time to read the script, and ultimately, he and CEO Bob Iger expressed confusion as to how Ben Solo, who died in The Rise of Skywalker, could return. Both had reservations about franchise continuity, which shocked Lucasfilm, since they felt “the story’s logic was clear and creatively sound,” the report said.
It is speculated that the decision had everything to do with internal politics. The report suggests that Bergman was being groomed by Iger to be his potential successor, and Iger backed Bergman’s skepticism of the film. Since then, however, the prospect of Bergman succeeding Iger has internally been met with skepticism inside Disney, with executives like Josh D’Amaro, the Parks chief, and Dana Walden, the other Entertainment co-chairwoman, potentially rising. Moreover, it looks like this wasn’t the only time he mishandled a high-profile pitch, which drew internal criticisms and might have derailed his candidature.
Driver and Soderbergh were not compensated for their efforts on Quiet Leaves. As Soderbergh wrote on Bluesky, The Hunt for Ben Solo has the unfortunate honor of being the only pitch that hit a final script phase that Kennedy greenlit that Disney turned down:
“Also, in the aftermath of the HFBS 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.”
Needless to say, the internet hasn’t really taken this news very well, especially not vocal fans of Ben Solo as a character (one of the more passionate and active elements of the sequel trilogy’s fanbase). Fans are insistent on trying to save the project, with some using more creative means than others. The project is officially dead at this time, with all NDAs having apparently expired, and those involved are free to discuss ideas related to it.
Even so, leaks and the resulting reaction to them have sometimes resulted in films resurrecting under different conditions, with Deadpool being the prime example. However, contrary to the Deadpool case, people close to Driver and Bergman confirmed to The Playlist that openly talking about this wasn’t a move to pressure Disney into making the project. How Ben Solo would have returned for this story would be unclear based on the details given – not that that’s stopped Lucasfilm before (see: Darth Maul in The Clone Wars, Asajj Ventress in The Bad Batch, or Emperor Palpatine in The Rise of Skywalker).
In a somewhat-related note, the article also had something to say about recent claims that David Fincher (who started his career working on Star Wars: Return of the Jedi) was actively making a Star Wars project that was similarly kiboshed recently. The original report mentioned that Fincher was developing a movie set after The Rise of Skywalker, while The Playlist argues that it was actually set between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker. Moreover, they say that it never went beyond a set of phone calls and informal meetings, and definitely not as far as falling apart because of negotiations of who has the final cut, as the original report suggested.
For now, only two Star Wars movies greenlit by Kennedy and approved by Iger and Bergman are currently dated for release and are in different stages of production – Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, set to release on May 22, 2026, and Star Wars: Starfighter, set to release on May 28, 2027.
Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.