Star Wars Fans Launch Campaign To Save Scrapped Ben Solo Movie!

If you walked out of the movie theatre in December of 2019 after viewing Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker feeling at best confused and at worst utterly devastated, you aren’t alone. The death of Kylo Ren (AKA Ben Solo), the last of the Skywalker bloodline, was a real blow to the franchise and left Rey without the other half of her Dyad.

Lucasfilm has not released another theatrical film ever since, and indeed, with the exception of “Andor”, the IP has felt rather directionless and uninspired. And now we may know why – it was revealed last week that a planned post-TROS movie called The Hunt For Ben Solo was planned by Lucasfilm but killed by Disney. And fans are NOT happy!

Here it a rundown of everything that happened, everything we know, and everything fans are doing to save The Hunt For Ben Solo!

So, it all started last Monday (October 20), when actor Adam Driver, while giving an interview to AP News about a completely different topic, dropped the absolute nuclear bomb on the Star Wars fanbase that he had, at the invitation of Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, spent about 2 years developing a movie about Ben Solo that takes place after The Rise of Skywalker.

Not only that, but he had Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh attached to helm it (he and Driver previously worked together on Logan Lucky) with a script by Scott Z. Burns (Contagion, The Bourne Ultimatum). Soderbergh himself confirmed the news and also a very alarming tidbit: It was the first project greenlit by Lucasfilm that Disney ever shut down!

As it turns out, this wasn’t just some loose pitch or treatment – it was an entire package. They had a director, they had a script, they had concept art, they even had start date for production! (The fact that any of this did not leak is kind of a miracle.) And best of all, they had the green light from Lucasfilm. This movie was going to happen. Literally all that was left was to get final approval from Disney, who ended up saying no. (Their reasoning being that they didn’t understand how Ben could still be alive, which Driver & Co. insist was explained pretty clearly in the script.)

As you can imagine, this has sent the entire Star Wars fan community in an uproar. There are few things the entire fanbase have ever agreed on but this seems to be it – that Disney made a huge mistake in killing this project. Kylo Ren/Ben Solo was arguably one of the most popular characters to come out of the Disney-era Sequel Trilogy, and the opportunity to see more of him (and probably Rey as well) in a new movie directed by Steven Soderbergh? The idea seems like a no-brainer. It’s money in the bank!

The Reylo faction of the fandom in particular have felt like this is 2019 all over again, watching their faves finally come together only to lose one and see the other end up all alone once again. But they are NOT taking this sitting down!

On October 23, a plane flying a banner that read “Save #TheHuntForBenSolo” was seen circling Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, CA.

A couple days later, on October 25, a billboard showed up in NYC’s Times Square that said “For Adam ‘No one’s ever really gone’ Hope Lives. Ben is alive! #THFBS”.

There have even been “MISSING” posters popping up outside of Disneyland in Anaheim:

Fans also created a petition on Change.org and even launched a fundraiser for the PCRF on behalf of the #SaveTheHuntForBenSolo movement, which has more than doubled its original $5,000 goal as of this publishing!

And they are not stopping there! In-person rallies in both Burbank and New York are planned for the coming weeks in an effort to convince the suits at Disney that they need to greenlight this movie!

Bottom line is, this isn’t going away. Adam Driver let a HUGH cat out of the bag and it’s united the Star Wars fandom in a way it never has before. This movie has the potential to bring the Star Wars IP back on track. And as long as hope lives in the Galaxy, so too is there hope that we haven’t seen the last of Ben Solo!