Star Wars fans were extremely upset when they learned of Steven Soderbergh’s Hunt for Ben Solo Star Wars film was canned as soon as its existence was revealed. Now we’re hearing more feelings from the film’s writer and director Steven Soderbergh along with the crew who were working on it in secret.
In a new interview with BK Mag, the academy award-winning writer and director discussed a lot of different topics and even mentioned his ill-fated Star Wars movie. The project which Adam Driver was onboard with was killed by Disney’s Bob Iger and Alan Bergman despite Lucasfilm loving the “great” script. Soderbergh first mentions he was under the impression he was going to spend two years of his life working on a Star Wars film.
The interviewer goes onto ask about The Hunt for Ben Solo that never was and this is where we hear more of Soderbergh’s feelings. We recently learned former Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy was not pleased with the scrapping of the film. Soderbergh said to BK Mag he is not surprised she was frustrated and that everyone involved was.
“There’s nothing to do about it, you know, except move on.”
Free Work
The director said he, Adam Driver (Kylo Ren) and Rebecca Blunt worked for free over the course of 2 and a half years. This detail will no doubt frustrate fans given it shows the trio really wanted to make this happen.
Furthermore, Soderbergh told Driver “do not editorialize or speculate about the why. Just say what happened, because all we know is what happened”. The apparent reason is “We don’t think Ben Solo could be alive.” There was nothing more given to the small team that had assembled for this project.
Extreme Disappointment
To top things off, Steven Soderbergh said as he posted that the film was done for, he made up the film in his imagination. This gave him a bad feeling because “nobody else was going to get to see it” and everyone involved is deeply upset.
“I thought the conversation was strictly going to be a practical one—where they go, what is this going to cost? And I had a really good answer for that. But it never even got to that point. It’s insane. We’re all very disappointed.”
It’s rare we hear creatives that have worked on Star Wars projects that failed to materialise speak to honestly about their experience. In this case, Lucasfilm were seemingly doing everything until outgoing CEO Bob Iger did not get it. Whether this story could be revisited under the new Dave Filioni and Josh D’amaro regime seems unlikely but fans still have hope.
In the immediate future, fans have The Mandalorian and Grogu hitting theatres on May 22nd.
For all of the latest Star Wars news, stay tuned to Bespin Bulletin. If you like our work, please consider supporting us on Patreon for ad-free articles.
