Overview
- Driver says he spent roughly two years developing The Hunt for Ben Solo with director Steven Soderbergh, first outlining the story with Rebecca Blunt before bringing in Scott Z. Burns to write.
- According to Driver, Lucasfilm executives including Kathleen Kennedy, Cary Beck, and Dave Filoni embraced the concept and “loved the idea.”
- Driver says Disney CEO Bob Iger and film chief Alan Bergman declined to proceed, telling the team they did not see how Ben Solo could be alive.
- The proposed film was described by Driver as smaller, economical, and character‑driven in the spirit of The Empire Strikes Back, and he called the draft one of the coolest scripts he had worked on.
- Soderbergh told AP he was sorry fans would not see the movie, and outlets including io9 reported independent confirmation that the project had been developed before being shelved.