Even though Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren, a.k.a. Ben Solo, died seven years ago in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, many fans have been mourning him in a different way over the last six months. In October, Adam Driver revealed he’d tried to bring back the character for a post-Rise of Skywalker movie with Steven Soderbergh, but Lucasfilm ended up scrapping the project. Had The Hunt for Ben Solo moved forward on the upcoming Star Wars movies and TV shows slate, this would have been Soderbergh’s first time helming a franchise feature, and now he’s weighed in on if he might join other franchises instead.
While Star Wars fans continue to campaign for the Kylo Ren movie, hoping to get the Lucasfilm leadership to change their minds about it, Steven Soderbergh has made it clear it’s not going to make a difference. That’s fair enough, but the filmmaker also had this to say when asked by The Daily Beast about if this experience made him “warier about joining a gigantic franchise machine”:
No, I’m comfortable. I’m the cockroach after the nuclear winter [laughs]. There’s no version of the business that I don’t think I can find a way through. I didn’t view that as stepping into the maw of some machine that was going to chew me up. It’s conceivable—whether it’s an idea that I generate or if I’m approached by something that is ‘hell yeah!’—that I would find myself working in a franchise context. I’m not worried about that. I can function properly in that atmosphere.
So on the one hand, Steven Soderbergh’s not ruling out that he could board a different franchise somewhere down the line. On the other hand, it’s not like he’s chomping at the bit to do so. Soderbergh has been a regular presence in Hollywood since delivering Sex, Lies, and Videotape in 1989, and the notable movies he’d made since then include Erin Brockovich, the original Ocean’s trilogy, the Magic Mike trilogy and Logan Lucky. He’s made it this far and is confident he can continue navigating the ever-changing film industry landscape, with or without franchises.
Article continues belowThat’s not to say that losing out on making a Star Wars movie didn’t disappoint Steven Soderbergh. He had high hopes for The Hunt for Ben Solo, as it was going to be a departure from the “either small or mid-sized” that he’s been working on over the last several years, saying:
Star Wars was going to occupy that slot. That was going to be the biggest thing I’ve ever attempted to make. And I was excited about working on a big canvas.
It’s a shame we’ll never get to see this vision that Steven Soderbergh and Adam Driver crafted with Rebecca Blunt realized. Soderbergh previously said that the Disney leadership couldn’t wrap their heads around Kylo Ren coming back to life in The Hunt for Ben Solo. So despite the fact that Disney and Lucasfilm are both under new leadership these days, Soderbergh has made peace with this project never seeing the light of day. Maybe another franchise will court him, but as far as Star Wars goes, that ship has sailed.
What we can look forward to on the Star Wars front is The Mandalorian & Grogu releasing in theaters on May 22, and Star Wars: Starfighter will follow on May 28, 2027. Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord is also currently streaming to fans who are signed up with a Disney+ subscription, and Ahsoka Season 2 is also expected to premiere sometime on the 2026 TV schedule.
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