Adam Driver contacted Soderbergh to make a more “personal” film about Kylo Ren. Until Disney stopped them

It is the eternal tension between creativity and corporate control that grips a Hollywood devastated by the presence of franchises, and that especially suffocates Disney, which either fails to get some of its most iconic brands to overcome the feeling of wear and tear (Marvel), or fails to get them to take creative flight (Indiana Jones, ‘Star Wars’). The last test, the cancellation of a project that could have been a bubble of fresh air in George Lucas’s galactic saga.

The return of Ben Solo. In an interview with The Associated Press, Adam Driver revealed that Disney rejected a sequel film centered on Ben Solo, better known as Kylo Ren), titled ‘The Hunt for Ben Solo’, which he developed with director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns for two years. Despite having enthusiastic support from Lucasfilm, including Kathleen Kennedy and Dave Filoni, the project was vetoed by Disney CEO Bob Iger and co-president Alan Bergman, who argued that they were not clear that Solo would still be alive after his redemption and death in 2019’s ‘The Rise of Skywalker.’

How it was going to be. The project was born from Driver’s personal interest in closing the arc of Kylo Ren, a character whose evolution he felt was incomplete. Originally, Driver had believed that there would be a reverse arc to that of Darth Vader that we saw in the prequels, but the trilogy produced by JJ Abrams did not develop it as the actor expected. After a call from Kennedy in 2021, Driver teamed up with Soderbergh to create a more intimate, character-driven film, inspired by the somewhat more twilight tone of ‘The Empire Strikes Back’.

How would I resurrect? Driver insists that Ben Solo’s apparent death was just that, apparent, and that Disney took a literal view of the films. And with this he left aside the tradition of the ‘Star Wars’ universe of resurrecting characters through clones, spirits, time travel or mystical forces, as happened with Emperor Palpatine himself in ‘The Rise of Skywalker’. Driver suggests with his statements that, once again, instead of betting on imagination and betraying expectations, Disney embraced linear and conventional narratives.

The shadow of Han Solo. In Marvel only in recent times and with very specific cases, such as ‘The Marvels’, ‘Eternals’ or the latest installment of Captain America, Disney has encountered box office failures that, in any case, have not been resounding either. On the other hand, we have been six years since the last ‘Star Wars’ film, and this despite the notorious success of the last trilogy. The reason may have been how poorly received proposals such as ‘Han Solo’ or ‘Rogue One’ have been, which attempted to propose narratives outside the Skywalker Saga.

Stage fright. However, that saga has ended and Disney seems paralyzed by a stage fright that could be reinforced by the poor reception of series like ‘Obi Wan Kenobi’ or ‘The Acolyte’. The success of parallel projects with a certain radical component such as ‘Andor’ does not seem to encourage the company to undertake alternative paths for the franchise, knowing that it has to invest a disproportionate amount of budget and marketing in selling new films in the series, and that is the reason why in recent years we have seen more cancellations than ideas coming to fruition.

Maybe things will change with the (for now) film starring Ryan Gosling that seems well underway. Although until the time comes, we may see a few corpses along the way like this ‘The Hunt for Ben Solo’

In Xataka | One thousand euros for the Star Wars Death Star: the most expensive Lego set to date does not make all fans happy

​