‘The Hunt for Ben Solo’ Had a Greenlit Script Before Disney Killed It

Earlier this week, Adam Driver sent a disturbance through the force when he revealed The Hunt for Ben SoloA Star Wars The film, produced by himself, director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns, which the actor said was backed by Lucasfilm but ultimately rejected by Disney executives Bob Iger and Alan Bergman. However, a new report gives the lightsaber a bit more of a twist, alleging that the movie made significant progress in early development before it died.

Playlist that report The Hunt for Ben Solo—which will be set after the event The Rise of Skywalker And The title character resurrects After he seemingly sacrificed himself to resurrect Ray—he reportedly received an internal green light from Lucasfilm when it was proposed to Disney executives for approval.

What this meant was that the film, reportedly being developed under the codename “Quiet Leaves”, had a final script and was entering the early stages of staffing and pre-production planning after Lucasfilm itself approved the studio. At that point, Disney had already purchased a “beat sheet”—a document that provided a broad chronological guide to planned events and the emotional pulse of a story to guide the scripting of the event—from Soderbergh and his wife, Jules Asner, the latter writing as Rebecca Blunt.

At the time, Barnes (who had previously been involved Star Wars on its repetition rogue one Script before the event inside showrunner Tony Gilroy was brought on to the project) was paid “more than any screenwriter in Lucasfilm history” to write the script, according to Playlist.

Lucasfilm, which at this stage had not yet entered a new production Star Wars The film after release The Rise of Skywalker In 2019, there was reportedly only waiting The Hunt for Ben Solo Filming was considered ready to begin before it was presented to Disney with a “final script, budget and proposed start date”, only for Iger and Bergman to decline, citing confusion over his survival. The redeemed Kylo Ren.

io9 has reached out to Lucasfilm for comment on the veracity of the Playlist report and will update this story when we hear back from the studio.

But the report coincides with public statements made earlier this week by an account believed to be Soderbergh’s on Bluesky. Account “Betuation” (Soderbergh had a handle Previously used on Twitter (before apparently moving to a rival social media platform in November 2024) On October 22, two days after the project was revealed, Driver said in a series of messages, “I didn’t enjoy lying about The Hunt for Ben Solo’s existence, but it needed to be kept a secret until now!”

“Also, after the HFBS situation, I asked Kathy Kennedy if LFL had ever submitted a finished movie script to Disney for greenlighting and was denied,” Account continues. “She said no, it’s a first.”

Playlist also noted that the reason both Driver and Soderbergh felt comfortable discussing it The Hunt for Ben Solo This week, despite the positive fan reaction to the concept, both the actor and the director firmly believe that the project is permanently dead, and that they are no longer bound by any related release agreements (no Ryan Reynolds Deadpool the leak Here, it seems).

unrelated to Hunt for Ben SoloPlaylists are also touched up A recent claim from Insneider That director David Fincher tried a new development Star Wars film, only to reject it. Contrary to that initial report, Playlist claims that Fincher’s project – supposedly set in the events The Last Jedi And The Rise of Skywalker-Instead of saying anything about the final cut of the film, as Insneider suggested, the very early conversations and ideas didn’t go beyond and won’t gain traction with Lucasfilm.

We bring you more about Lucasfilm’s future plans Star Wars–scrap or otherwise– As we learn.

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