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In a galaxy far, far away, the dead speak! Or, at least, they used to…
While Star Wars characters once had a knack for returning from the Netherworld – Darth Maul, Darth Sidious, and Boba Fett, to name a few – bringing back Ben Solo has proven a step too far. Adam Driver recently revealed a film centring on the man formerly known as Kylo Ren was in the works, with a completed script from The Bourne Ultimatum's Scott Z. Burns and a director in Steven Soderbergh. Yet, despite the talent involved and Driver’s eagerness to return as one of the sequel trilogy’s best-received characters, the project, The Hunt For Ben Solo, was nixed by Disney’s Bob Iger and co-chairman Alan Bergman.
"They didn’t see how Ben Solo was alive. And that was that,” Driver told the Associated Press, with Soderbergh adding in a follow-up message on BlueSky: “In the aftermath of the HFBS situation, I asked [Lucasfilm head] 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.”
Admittedly, reviving another character after Palpatine’s memeable return would have been a risky move, but frankly, The Hunt For Ben Solo is exactly the sort of movie the franchise desperately needs right now. Not only was it being spearheaded by an Oscar-nominated actor beloved by the fandom, but it had some serious creative talent behind the camera, namely a director whose involvement would have had all of Naboo talking.
You were the chosen one!
Now, I don’t want to be dismissive of Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni’s contribution to the franchise – The Mandalorian and Clone Wars-adjacent side of Star Wars has been done extremely well – but next year’s The Mandalorian and Grogu doesn’t feel as exciting and fresh as a full-blooded, original movie. I also don’t want to do a disservice to Shawn Levy, handling the upcoming Star Wars: Starfighter with Ryan Gosling; Levy’s a wildly successful filmmaker (Deadpool & Wolverine) and a solid, safe set of hands for ushering in a new era of Star Wars (and I will be seated). Yet, his involvement doesn’t exactly scream, “We’re trying something completely different!” Unlike if Soderbergh’s name was attached.
A recap: Soderbergh is one of only two filmmakers to be nominated twice at the Oscars for Best Director in the same year (Erin Brockovich and Traffic in 2000). He has blockbuster credentials (Oceans 11), previously worked with Driver to critical acclaim (Logan Lucky), and has a recent track record for experimental, well-received movies of varying budgets, including last year’s $2m budget horror Presence, this year’s $50m thriller Black Bag, and the upcoming The Christophers – all of which have 88% and above scores on Rotten Tomatoes.
With all that in mind, it’s almost impossible to imagine what a Soderbergh-directed Star Wars movie would look like, and that’s what makes the now-deceased project so utterly exciting. To give someone like Soderbergh the keys to George Lucas’s empire feels bold, which has always been the lifeblood of Star Wars – I mean, kicking off your prequel series with trade negotiations may not have been entirely successful, but it was different.
Arguably more importantly, the internet has been abuzz with disappointment about what Soderbergh’s Star Wars could have been – the sheer excitement and speculation that would have been kicked off had Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy officially announced the project would have been off the charts. And considering that Andor is the only series that fans agree has been consistently good, that’s really what Star Wars needs. (One thing not being talked about as much as Soderbergh’s involvement is the fact that the movie would have been a chance to redeem some of the more, ehem, contentious arcs from The Rise of Skywalker, giving Ben Solo some actual screentime as his heroic self, rather than being Kylo Ren.)
Not just a Star Wars problem
The thing is, fans understand what the marriage of talent and (warning: corporate term incoming) IP can do to a franchise. Look at Barbie, which the vast majority of people thought would be utterly catastrophic, but in the hands of Greta Gerwig, was an Oscar-nominated success. How about James Gunn's Superman; the Man of Steel was in the doldrums following his cameo in Black Adam, but now he’s flying high off the back of a killer debut. More recently, on the small screen, we’ve seen Noah Hawley break new ground with Alien: Earth, letting the creator of Fargo go wild with Ridley Scott’s chest-busters. Even Gareth Edwards’ Jurassic World Rebirth was an interesting, well-made spin-off, even if the final results weren’t exactly a romping success. And the same goes for Sam Raimi, who gave us a mind-bending, risqué (for Marvel) Doctor Strange.
It sounds so basic, but the coming together of interesting creatives and franchises continues to be a winning formula that can inject new life into a series – and yet, more and more, studio heads seem adverse to any risk-taking. Look at HBO’s Harry Potter TV series; set images show essentially a one-to-one remake of the beloved movies. As the confused director of The Philosopher’s Stone, Christopher Columbus, essentially asked: ‘Why?’
Another egregious miss: Steven Spielberg pitched a Call of Duty movie to Activision, which was vetoed because the director, whose face has long been carved on cinema’s Mount Rushmore, wanted final cut. Or how about Marvel, going back to the Russo brothers for the next Avengers film – sturdy, ship-righting directors, sure, but not a wildly imaginative or exciting choice that has the fandom talking.
But now, imagine for a second, a world where Jordan Peele’s given free rein to do what he wants with Transformers; where the Safdie brothers take Fast & Furious for a ride; where an executive pays Lynne Ramsay enough money to take on a Harley Quinn movie. Everyone’s ears would be pricked. There’s some great stuff coming soon – Denis Villeneuve’s James Bond, Gerwig’s Narnia movies – but right now, during a period where superheroes and Star Wars aren’t captivating audiences like they were, executives should lean into what actually makes fans excited, and, importantly for the big-wigs, gets results. So fingers crossed that, should there be enough online chatter and fan groundswell, one future project might just be The Hunt For Ben Solo. Iger, you’re our only hope!
For more, dive into our list of upcoming Star Wars movies, or how to watch Star Wars movies in order.
