Adam Driver Says Disney Turned Down His ‘Star Wars’ Sequel

Adam Driver reportedly spent two years developing a Star Wars sequel that is now “no more.” 

The actor-producer, 41, revealed in an Associated Press interview published Monday, Oct. 20, that he and filmmaker Steven Soderbergh worked on a script for The Hunt for Ben Solo, a sequel to the Star Wars trilogy starring Driver as that titular character. 

“I always was interested in doing another Star Wars… I always said: With a great director and a great story, I’d be there in a second. I loved that character and loved playing him,” said Driver, whose three-movie run as Kylo Ren a.k.a. Ben Solo ended with the character’s apparent death in 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker. 

Soderbergh, 62, Rebecca Blunt and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns worked with the Megalopolis star to make “one of the coolest (expletive) scripts I had ever been a part of,” he said. But after Lucasfilm “loved the idea” and expressed interest, the powers that be at Disney shot the movie down.

“We took it to [Disney executives] Bob Iger and Alan Bergman and they said no. They didn’t see how Ben Solo was alive. And that was that,” recalled the Oscar nominee. “It was called The Hunt for Ben Solo and it was really cool. But it is no more, so I can finally talk about it.”

Soderbergh said, in a statement to AP, “I really enjoyed making the movie in my head. I’m just sorry the fans won’t get to see it.”

Daisy Ridley, who starred as Rey in the J.J. Abrams- and Rian Johnson-directed trilogy with Driver, is returning to the character in a follow-up announced in 2023. Up next for the franchise that began with George Lucas’ original film in 1977 are the Pedro Pascal-led The Mandalorian and Grogu (in theaters May 22, 2026), the Ryan Gosling-starring Star Wars: Starfighter (in theaters May 28, 2027) and untitled projects from filmmakers Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Dave Filoni, James Mangold and Taika Waititi.

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Driver had nothing but praise for his Star Wars sequel’s would-be director Soderbergh, who he last worked with on 2017’s Logan Lucky: “He is, to me, one of my favorite directors of all time,” Driver told AP of Soderbergh. “He lives his code, lives his ethics, doesn’t compromise.”

Among the actor’s upcoming projects are Father Mother Sister Brother (in theaters Dec. 24), Chris Rock’s Misty Green and James Gray’s Paper Tiger.