It’s the story that keeps on giving. Star Wars fans have bought a Times Square billboard to advocate for the making of The Hunt for Ben Solo, just a few days after they flew a plane over Disney Studios in Burbank with a banner asking to save the failed project.
The billboard was apparently the idea of Bri Neagle, who is on Twitter/X under the username @BD_Neagle_. She wrote on the social media app that it is a 15-second ad that plays every 28th minute. As it can be seen on the top image, it reads: “For Adam. No one’s ever really gone. Hope lives. Ben is alive! #THBS”.
The latter was meant to read #TheHuntForBenSolo, but had to be shortened to #THBS, as the booking agency argued it went against their policies, since it “references the recent ‘The Hunt for Ben Solo’ controversy”, the user confirmed with us. The agency went on: “Please note that this type of content goes against our billboard policies, which do not allow materials related to political, controversial, or franchise-related disputes.” The billboard will only be live today (Saturday), though Neagle doesn’t rule out running it again.
The ad was captured by another social media user, whose image we are using as our header:
“No one’s ever really gone.” 🦋 #TheHuntForBenSolo billboard in Times Square! We want the Ben Solo movie Disney!! @DisneyStudios @Disney @RobertIger @sw_holocron @starwars @Variety @StarWarsNewsNet @THR @PopCrave @Lucasfilm pic.twitter.com/bLTbTW7vtu
— 🦋 (@1_800_BEN_SOLO) October 25, 2025
This is the second viral stunt pulled by fans within the first five days since Adam Driver revealed the existence of the project. A plane carrying a “Save The Hunt for Ben Solo” banner flew over Burbank on Thursday, and could be seen from Disney Studios. While speaking to the Associated Press, Driver revealed that they were really closer to making a post-Rise of Skywalker movie, directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Scott Z. Burns, before Disney pulled the plug on it, despite Lucasfilm’s blessing.
Since then, more reporting has come out about it. The project had apparently a finished script, and was in early prep when Lucasfilm’s top brass sent it to Bob Iger and Alan Bergman. The two executives turned it down, with The Playlist saying it was due to internal studio politics related to the Disney succession process: Bergman didn’t see the case for the movie, after taking a very long time to read the script, and Iger would have backed him up. The reason given was that they didn’t see why Ben Solo would be alive after sacrificing himself at the end of The Rise of Skywalker. Lucasfilm was apparently shocked about this, as they felt confident in the story’s logic.
The story continues to evolve, and more twists may even come out over the next few days. The viral online campaign in support for this movie has so far exceeded anything that Star Wars has seen in many years. In just five days, it’s pulled similar stunts to what Zack Snyder fans did in 2-3 years to ask Warner Bros. to release Snyder’s version of Justice League. Lucasfilm hasn’t responded to questions about this all week, and a representative for Burns deflected a request for comment, redirecting us to the studio.
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.