The fan campaign to make The Hunt for Ben Solo a reality continues, as Star Wars fans held a rally at Disney‘s New York headquarters yesterday. The cancelled film, which would have seen Adam Driver reprise his role as Ben Solo from the Star Wars sequel trilogy, has become a lightning rod in the fan community since Driver revealed its existence in an interview last month. Collider spoke exclusively to the fans attending the rally, eliciting a statement on the group’s raison d’être.
Collider’s Maggie Lovitt spoke with Lauren, one of the fans that attended the rally, after the event, “Ultimately, the legacy of Star Wars has always been hope, and today, we carried that hope. Today’s meetup at Disney HQ in NYC brought together 3 generations of Star Wars fans, all united under the banner [The Hunt for Ben Solo].” She went on to add, “Death robs redemption of accountability. Bring back Ben Solo. For the Skywalkers. For the Sequels. For Star Wars.” The rally was the latest in a series of events seeking to prove to Disney that there is a massive potential audience for the film; fans also hired a plane to fly over Disney‘s California studios with a “Save The Hunt for Ben Solo” banner, and commissioned a Times Square billboard. Undoubtedly, more events are in the offing.
What Is ‘The Hunt for Ben Solo’ About?
The son of Han Solo and Leia Organa, Ben Solo was one of the principal characters in the Star Wars sequel trilogy that kicked off with 2015’s The Force Awakens. He fell to the dark side of the Force, becoming the masked Imperial enforcer Kylo Ren, but was redeemed and seemingly perished in battle with the resurrected Emperor Palpatine in the final intallment of the trilogy, The Rise of Skywalker. Following that film, Driver conceived of how the character would survive, and formulated a pitch for a sequel film with director Steven Soderbergh and his wife, screenwriter Jules Asner, who previously collaborated with Driver on the heist comedy Logan Lucky. The film was greenlit by Lucasfilm, and frequent Soderbergh collaborator Scott Z. Burns, who had himself directed Driver in The Report, was hired to write the film’s script. However, it was subsequently cancelled by Lucasfilm‘s corporate parent, Disney.
Driver himself can next be seen in the Jim Jarmusch anthology film Father Mother Sister Brother, which will be released next month. He is also set to star in his first major TV role since breaking out on Girls: Rabbit, Rabbit, a Netflix hostage drama miniseries.
via Collider