Star Wars CCO Officially Responds to Calls For the Ben Solo Movie & Rumors It’s Still Possible

Few abandoned franchise projects have inspired a campaign quite like The Hunt for Ben Solo. Since Kylo Ren actor Adam Driver revealed that he spent two years developing a post-Rise of Skywalker film with director Steven Soderbergh, the proposed film has become one of the most tantalizing “what ifs” in modern Star Wars history. Fans have rallied behind the Driver-driven project by launching online petitions, hiring billboard buses, and even flying “Save The Hunt for Ben Solo” banners over Disney’s Burbank lot.

The campaign even received support from Star Wars stalwarts like Daisy Ridley, Rian Johnson and former Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, who called the script “great.” With new leadership at Lucasfilm and Driver returning to Disney for a major new role in another fan-centered franchise, D23 appeared to be the perfect opportunity for the Force to finally awaken for the project. Dave Filoni has now responded to calls for Lucasfilm to join the hunt, though interpreting his answer may still need a protocol droid.

While talking to Deadline at D23, the Lucasfilm co-president was asked whether The Hunt for Ben Solo was on the docket for the Force-sensitive side of the Disney studios. Filoni responded with a coy smile and a Jedi hand wave. “We’re not making that picture right now. That’s all I can say.” He later clarified in a follow up that fans would not find the project being announced at D23, “It’s not here, you won’t find it here,” Filoni said. “The Force is not here in that regard; I love the love you feel for it.” In context, Filoni appeared to be saying that Ben Solo was not at D23 and there was nothing new to announce. He didn’t confirm that the project wasn’t being revived at all, but he also stopped well short of declaring that it could never happen.

What Happened to The Hunt for Ben Solo?

Filoni’s use of the phrase “right now” is doing a lot of heavy lifting for fans who want to keep imagining how Ben Solo could come back to them. Driver revealed the project in October 2025, explaining that discussions about returning to Star Wars began as early as 2021. “With a great director and a great story, I’d be there in a second,” Driver said. “I loved that character and loved playing him.” He eventually took the idea to Steven Soderbergh, who previously collaborated with the actor in the 2017 NASCAR heist comedy Logan Lucky. The Out of Sight and Ocean’s Eleven filmmaker developed the story with Rebecca Blunt before Contagion writer Scott Z. Burns took on the screenplay. Driver described the result as one of the coolest scripts he had ever been a part of and even Soderbergh had to vent that not moving forward was “insane”.

For its part, Lucasfilm reportedly loved the idea and understood how the filmmakers planned to continue the story of Leia’s little boy, but Disney executives Bob Iger and Alan Bergman rejected it. “They didn’t see how Ben was alive,” Driver revealed. “And that was that.” Considering The Rise of Skywalker announced Emperor Palpatine’s return with a single word of “somehow,” fans were understandably unconvinced that death presented an insurmountable storytelling problem. Hollywood has demonstrated that few franchise characters remain permanently dead, and Star Wars itself has resurrected everyone from Darth Maul to Boba Fett and countless force ghosts in-between.

Driver’s D23 appearance confirmed that he will trade Kylo Ren’s mask for Mister Sinister’s pale grimace in Marvel Studio’s upcoming X-men reboot. We don’t have any insider info on the negotiations that brought him back into the fold or whether The Hunt for Ben Solo ever entered them, but plenty of fans wish the actor’s contract had made the movie a condition of the deal. Hollywood history is filled with multi-picture contracts that forced actors into sequels they would rather not make. Isn’t it time one resulted in a movie the actor has spent years wishing he could make?

Filoni confirmed that the project wasn’t hiding on the D23 announcement schedule, but his careful response stopped short of a definitive “never.” Star Wars found a way to bring Palpatine back with next to no explanation at all. Surely it can find a way to let Ben Solo somehow return.