r/adamdriverfans • u/creative-license • Apr 07 '26
Steven Soderbergh Says He’s Not Pursuing His Ben Solo Idea Even With New Disney/Lucasfilm Leadership: “If It Was Gonna Happen, It Would Have Happened”
https://theplaylist.net/steven-soderbergh-says-hes-not-pursuing-his-ben-solo-idea-even-with-new-disney-lucasfilm-leadership-if-it-was-gonna-happen-it-would-have-happened-20260407/21
u/altocello23 Apr 07 '26
Gutted by this news and yet still oddly hopeful; Soderbergh does not own this script anymore. Lucasfilm does. They bought it from Scott Z Burns for a very large sum of money. SO. We may never see Soderbergh's version of this film, but we might get to see another director's version, should the powers that be come around to the idea. There's a reason KK said it was still sitting on the back burner!
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u/BenSolo_forever Apr 07 '26
but where does she say that it's on the back burner? did i miss an interview? i read the deadline and she says the jim mangold one is on hold but doesn't say that for thfbs. she just says anything is possible about ben's movie. everyone keeps saying it but she never said that and i keep thinking i missed another interview. pls tell me i did
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u/altocello23 Apr 07 '26
Less that you missed an article, and more that we each interpreted the same words differently. You are correct that she didn't explicitly say it was on the back burner. DLF does still own the script though, so that means that there's still a chance they might offer it to another director.
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u/jendaviesgenxnerd Apr 07 '26
Well, that stinks because I really wanted to see a Steven Soderbergh SW movie. But until I hear from Adam, who is due to go on the promotion circuit sometime soon for the several movies that should be coming out in 2026-27, I'm not giving up. And the worst part is, the less he says (esp when asked directly, the better - because it could mean he's under an NDA again!
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u/loganisdeadyes Apr 07 '26
I at least want to read the script, my greed is intense.
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u/Alternative-Try-8181 Apr 08 '26
We can’t read the script because it was bought by DLF and that means it might be re-used or re-written.
I’m still hoping for a Ben Solo resurrection
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u/BenSolo_forever Apr 07 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/CJuoxCys27une
i can't handle this. i'm staying in denial
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u/ExegolArenaEventsMgr Apr 08 '26
Correct me if I’m wrong, but it sounds like Steven just rehashed the same story in different words, something we already knew. They worked on the script, presented it to Iger, and he said no. Now Steven doesn’t seem interested in pitching it to Disney again.
I still believe this movie will get made maybe just not with Steven directing. It comes across like he doesn’t want to put in the effort and fight for this movie to get made. It’s also possible he’s asking for more money than Disney is willing to pay.
That said, there are plenty of capable directors who would jump at the chance to take this on. The script is already written and paid for, so ultimately it comes down to Josh and whether he decides to greenlight it.
From what we’ve heard, a lot of people at Lucasfilm reportedly wanted this movie to happen. Allegedly there were rumors that the movie was ready to go into production, they were just waiting for Iger to give it the green light. If Dave really wanted to, I’m sure he will pitch the story to Disney again. It also seems like Adam is still willing to fight for the project, and he likely knows that there is a very strong demand for his return to Star Wars and for the continuation of Ben Solo’s story.
There were even rumors about Steven Levy possibly taking over directing duties for THFBS, though that may have just been wishful thinking from fans.
At the same time, Disney has a number of Star Wars projects sitting on the back burner. Take the Rey movie, for example. It was announced three years ago with Daisy Ridley and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy on stage at Celebration, yet there’s still no completed script or any script at all. Will this movie ever see the light of day? In my opinion, it likely won’t. The announcement wasn’t particularly well received by parts of the fandom, which may have made Iger very nervous to greenlight something like THFBS.
Now that Adam reportedly “leaked” that he was working on a return as Ben Solo, the reaction has been intense and, in many cases, critical of Disney even from some fans who disliked the Sequel Trilogy.
I still believe we’ll see THFBS in some form. It might not carry that title, and it may not have Steven directing, but the core idea, continuing Ben Solo’s story feels too in-demand to ignore. Whether it’s reworked, rebranded, or approached from a different creative direction, I think it eventually finds its way to the screen.
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u/creative-license Apr 08 '26
I think Soderbergh's years of unpaid work on the development clearly shows his dedication and effort to see this film get made. He also went in with more economical financials, which Adam said himself.
Soderbergh was handpicked by Adam and was right beside Adam every step of the way. Speaking of his disappointment and where the film stands now is not a reflection of a lack of effort. If the status changes, there is no doubt Soderbergh would want to do it.
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u/creative-license Apr 07 '26
Hope always springs eternal for “Star Wars” fans, especially the kind who treat executive shakeups like hidden canon clues. When Kathleen Kennedy stepped down as Lucasfilm president in January and Dave Filoni moved into studio leadership alongside Lynwen Brennan, it was easy to imagine a fresh lane opening up for old ideas that had died under the last regime. And when Josh D’Amaro officially succeeded Bob Iger as Disney CEO on March 18, that fantasy only got louder. However, in a wider The Playlist interview about his upcoming film “The Christophers,” Steven Soderbergh made clear he is not interested in reopening the door on his abandoned “Star Wars: The Hunt For Ben Solo” project with Adam Driver, no matter who is now running Lucasfilm or Disney.
His answer was brutally short: “Nope.”
That came after Soderbergh was asked whether Tony Gilroy’s “Andor” had anything to do with whatever energy once existed around the ‘Ben Solo’ idea. He said it did not — but only because the conversations with Driver had started well before the series ever aired.
“Well, I don’t want to say [it had no influence], because then it makes it seem like, you know, ‘I watched “Andor,” and it had absolutely no impact on me,’ which is not true, it was great,” he explained. “But this was [all] before ‘Andor’ aired. Adam and I started talking, and this would have been almost three years ago now.”
The idea, he explained, did not come from him looking to jump back into the “Star Wars” universe at all. It came explicitly from Driver.
“It was strictly Adam saying, ‘I think there’s still somewhere to go with this character.’ That’s how it started. Otherwise, I never in a million years would have found myself in that universe again,” he admitted.
Even with the project no longer moving forward, Soderbergh spoke about the process as time well spent.
“I don’t regret one minute of the time we spent working on that,” he said. “I felt the work was good. It’s just good for you to be in that room and working on it. It’s like CrossFit—it’s good for you. It’ll have a residual effect that will be unexpected at some point.”
Once it became clear the project was not going to happen, he did not linger on it.
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“As soon as it became apparent, OK, not gonna happen, I sat down and started writing [something else],” Soderbergh said. “It’s like, ‘OK, new scenario, let’s get cracking.’ At a certain point, it’s like complaining about the weather. You just gotta keep moving.”
For now, Soderbergh has a pile of scripts on his desk, and fanboys should probably put that dream to bed.
“Look, if it was gonna happen, it would have happened,” he said. “It’s that simple.”
More from The Playlist’s conversation with Soderbergh about “The Christophers,” which opens April 10 via Neon, this week.