(Photo Credit: Lucasfilm)
Academy Award-winning director Steven Soderbergh has opened up about his frustrations over Disney scrapping his Star Wars: The Hunt for Ben Solo movie. This comes nearly four months after Adam Driver surprised Star Wars fans when he revealed that he was actually meant to star in a solo Kylo Ren movie, which was unexpectedly turned down by the Disney bosses.
What did Steven Soderbergh say about the canceled Star Wars movie?
During a recent interview with BKMAG, Soderbergh admitted that he shares former Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy’s disappointment over the canceled Ben Solo/Kylo Ren movie. He revealed that he, Driver, and writer Rebecca Blunt had dedicated more than two years of free work on the project’s development.
“It was no surprise that she [Kennedy] was frustrated. We were all frustrated. You know, that was two and a half years of free work for me and Adam and Rebecca Blunt,” he shared. “When Adam and I discussed him talking about it publicly, I said, ‘Look, do not editorialize or speculate about the why. Just say what happened, because all we know is what happened.’ The stated reason was ‘We don’t think Ben Solo could be alive.’ And that was all we were told. And so there’s nothing to do about it, you know, except move on.”
The Ocean’s Eleven director is frustrated that fans won’t be able to see their vision for the movie, especially when they didn’t have the chance to defend the project from its cancellation.
Soderbergh added, “And as I posted, I’d kind of made the movie in my head, and just felt bad that nobody else was going to get to see it. 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.”
Despite the character’s immense popularity among the fandom, Disney executives Bob Iger and Alan Bergman surprisingly turned down the project. Even though Lucasfilm loved their idea, Iger and Bergman just couldn’t understand why his character would still be alive when he had already sacrificed his life at the end of The Rise of Skywalker movie. Since the canceled movie was revealed, fans have been rallying online to convince the studio that they made a mistake by not going forward with the project.
Driver was last seen in Star Wars at the end of 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker, which was directed and co-written by J.J. Abrams. The ensemble cast also featured Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Naomi Ackie, Joonas Suotamo, Kelly Marie Tran, Jodie Comer, and more. Despite receiving mixed reviews, the movie still earned a worldwide gross of over $1 billion at the box office.
(Source: BKMAG)
