Steven Soderbergh on Canceled Star Wars Ben Solo Movie: “It’s Insane”

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Steven Soderbergh has shared more information about why his planned Star Wars movie, originally titled The Hunt for Ben Solo, never got made. He was involved in developing the story and was set to direct, but Disney ultimately decided against moving forward with the project. Soderbergh admitted he was frustrated by the amount of effort he put in, only for Disney to quickly reject the idea.

I was really bummed out, honestly, when I heard Kathleen Kennedy – the former head of Lucasfilm – talk about her disappointment with some projects. She basically admitted that a lot of work we – Adam Driver and I, along with Rebecca Blunt – put in for two and a half years ended up going nowhere. It felt like a lot of effort for nothing, you know?

I remember when Adam and I talked about making this public, I was really clear: just stick to the facts. I said, ‘Don’t try to guess why anything happened, just state what happened.’ The official line we were given was that they didn’t believe Ben Solo could have survived, and honestly, that’s all we knew. There wasn’t anything else to do but accept it and move forward.

What’s most surprising is how quickly Disney seemed to abandon the project. Soderbergh said he’d already fully envisioned the film and was upset no one else would get to experience it. He expected the discussion to focus on logistics – things like location and budget, for which he had solid plans. But the conversation never even reached that stage, which he found baffling and disappointing for everyone involved.

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2026-02-19 01:07