{"id":224829,"date":"2025-12-10T02:56:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T02:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/224829\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T02:56:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T02:56:08","slug":"daisy-ridley-praises-star-wars-fans-for-rallying-behind-hunt-for-ben-solo-adam-driver-revealing-disney-axed-the-movie-is-the-big-surprise-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/224829\/","title":{"rendered":"Daisy Ridley Praises \u2018Star Wars\u2019 Fans for Rallying Behind \u2018Hunt for Ben Solo\u2019: Adam Driver Revealing Disney Axed the Movie Is the \u2018Big Surprise of the Year\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Daisy Ridley starred as Rey opposite Adam Driver as Kylo Ren\/Ben Solo in three \u201cStar Wars\u201d movies between 2015 and 2019, so consider her shocked when news broke in October<\/a> about the scrapped standalone \u201cStar Wars\u201d movie \u201cThe Hunt for Ben Solo.\u201d Driver revealed the film\u2019s existence in an interview with the Associated Press<\/a>, explaining he had been developing a Ben Solo movie for two years with director Steven Soderbergh. Then Disney executives pulled the plug on them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew a piece of it. I heard rumblings,\u201d Ridley told\u00a0IGN<\/a>. \u201cI have lots of friends who are crew, so things always travel like that. But, whoa! When the story came out, no, I was like, \u2018Oh, my God!\u2019 And it was him that said it, right? It was funny because, like, \u2018Oh, wow,\u00a0Adam\u00a0is saying it,\u2019 and that\u2019s the big surprise of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

More from Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ridley is no stranger to dealing with divisive \u201cStar Wars\u201d fans given the polarizing responses to \u201cStar Wars: The Last Jedi\u201d and \u201cStar Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,\u201d which is why it was so heartening to see the fandom come together in support of \u201cThe Hunt for Ben Solo.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI do love when there is a collective of positivity,\u201d Ridley said. \u201cThe way the internet seems to have rallied to try and get it to happen. It\u2019s fantastic for us all. It\u2019s good for us to all be united about something in a really positive way. Obviously, everyone knows he was a very popular character, but it was also lovely to think, \u2018Wow, people really,\u00a0really\u00a0care and want this.\u2019 I just\u2026 I like it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI like when people join forces \u2014 excuse the pun \u2014 from all around the world, all different sorts of people,\u201d she continued. \u201cI just love that the \u2018Star Wars\u2019 fandom is such a huge and gorgeous array of different points of view and different people, and the fact that everyone is really behind this thing, I think, is just sort of lovely, in a time that is so fucking nuts for probably every single person on this Earth. I think it\u2019s wonderful. So I was surprised, and honestly, I felt joyful about how it went down.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Hunt for Ben Solo\u201d would have taken place after the events of \u201cThe Rise of Skywalker.\u201d\u00a0According to Driver, Soderbergh worked on the script with his \u201cLogan Lucky\u201d scribe Rebecca Blunt and longtime collaborator Scott Z. Burns (\u201cContagion,\u201d \u201cThe Informant!\u201d). Driver starred in Soderbergh\u2019s \u201cLogan Lucky\u201d and Burns\u2019 \u201cThe Report.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI always was interested in doing another \u2018Star Wars<\/a>,\u2019\u201d Driver told the AP. \u201cI had been talking about doing another one since 2021. Kathleen [Kennedy] had reached out. I always said: \u2018With a great director and a great story, I\u2019d be there in a second.\u2019 I loved that character and loved playing him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Driver loved \u201cThe Hunt for Ben Solo\u201d script, calling it the \u201cstandard\u201d of what a \u201cStar Wars\u201d movie \u201cshould be\u201d and comparing it to the \u201chandmade and character-driven\u201d feel of \u201cThe Empire Strikes Back.\u201d The Oscar nominee said Lucasfilm execs Kathleen Kennedy, Dave Filoni and Cary Beck\u00a0backed the project until Disney shut it down.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe presented the script to Lucasfilm. They loved the idea,\u201d Driver recalled. \u201cThey totally understood our angle and why we were doing it. We took it to Bob Iger and Alan Bergman, and they said no. They didn\u2019t see how Ben Solo was alive. And that was that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Driver\u2019s interview mobilized \u201cStar Wars\u201d fans on social media into calling for Disney to reverse its decision and put \u201cThe Hunt for Ben Solo\u201d back in development. A group of \u201cStar Wars\u201d fans even paid for a plane <\/a>to fly a banner reading \u201cSave \u2018The Hunt for Ben Solo\u2019\u201d over Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, Calif.<\/p>\n

Best of Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Daisy Ridley starred as Rey opposite Adam Driver as Kylo Ren\/Ben Solo in three \u201cStar Wars\u201d movies between…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[263],"tags":[27216,120845,62587,1887,18,117,19,17,327,11532,8127,39012,120844],"class_list":["post-224829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-adam-driver","tag-ben","tag-daisy-ridley","tag-disney","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-movies","tag-solo","tag-star-wars","tag-steven-soderbergh","tag-the-hunt"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115693026207776925","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}