Earlier this week, Adam Driver sent a disturbance through the Force when he revealed The Hunt for Ben Solo, a Star Wars film developed by himself, director Steven Soderbergh, and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns, which the actor said was backed by Lucasfilm but ultimately scrapped by Disney executives Bob Iger and Alan Bergman. However, a new report twists the lightsaber in a bit further, alleging that the movie had made significant headway into initial development before it was killed.
Playlist reports that The Hunt for Ben Solo—which would’ve been set after the events of The Rise of Skywalker and resurrected the titular character after he seemingly sacrificed himself to resurrect Rey—purportedly had received an internal green light from Lucasfilm when it was then offered to Disney executives for approval.
What that meant was that the film, allegedly developed under the codename “Quiet Leaves,” had a finalized script in place and was entering early phases of staffing and pre-production planning after Lucasfilm itself had given the studio’s approval. At that point, Disney had already purchased a “beat sheet”—a document providing a broad chronological guideline of the planned events and emotional beats of a story to guide the eventual screenplay—from Soderbergh and his wife, Jules Asner, the latter writing under the pen name Rebecca Blunt.
At that point, Burns (who had previously been involved in Star Wars on iterations of the Rogue One script before eventual Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy was brought into that project) was reportedly paid “more than any screenwriter in Lucasfilm history,” according to Playlist, to write the script.
Lucasfilm, which at this stage had not yet entered production on a new Star Wars film after the release of The Rise of Skywalker in 2019, allegedly only waited until The Hunt for Ben Solo was considered ready to begin filming before presenting it to Disney, with a “final script, budget, and proposed start date,” only for Iger and Bergman to reject it, citing confusion about the survival of the redeemed Kylo Ren.
io9 has reached out to Lucasfilm for comment on the veracity of Playlist’s report and will update this story when and if we hear from the studio.
But the report does coincide with public statements made earlier this week on Bluesky by an account believed to be Soderbergh’s. The account “Bitchuation” (a handle Soderbergh had previously used on Twitter before seemingly migrating to the rival social media platform in November 2024) stated in a series of messages on October 22, two days after Driver’s public reveal of the project, that “I did not enjoy lying about the existence of THE HUNT FOR BEN SOLO, but it really did need to remain a secret…until now!”
“Also, in the aftermath of the HFBS situation, I asked Kathy Kennedy if LFL had ever turned in a finished movie script for greenlight to Disney and had it rejected,” the account continued. “She said no, this was a first.”
Playlist further noted that the reason both Driver and Soderbergh have felt comfortable discussing The Hunt for Ben Solo this week is that, in spite of positive fan reaction to the idea, both actor and director firmly believe that the project is permanently dead, and they are no longer bound by any related disclosure agreements (no Ryan Reynolds Deadpool leak here, it seems).
Unrelated to Hunt for Ben Solo, Playlist also further touched upon a recent claim from the InSneider that director David Fincher had attempted to develop a new Star Wars film, only for it to be turned down. Contrary to that initial report, Playlist claims that Fincher’s project—supposedly set between the events of The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker—never went beyond very early conversations and concepts and didn’t gain traction with Lucasfilm, rather than breaking down over say on the final cut of the film, as the InSneider had suggested.
We’ll bring you more on Lucasfilm’s plans for the future of Star Wars—scrapped or otherwise—as we learn them.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.