Steven Soderbergh Pours Cold Water on Ben Solo Movie Hopes After Star Wars Shakeup

Look, Star Wars is basically a factory of endless rumors and wild project ideas, but here's a recent one that actually isn't completely made up: Adam Driver really did try to cook up a Ben Solo spinoff movie after 'The Rise of Skywalker.' And get this—he even looped in Steven Soderbergh. Yeah, that Soderbergh. Except, as with most things in Star Wars these days, the whole idea just evaporated into space.

So What Actually Happened?

If you don't remember (or maybe blocked it out for your own sanity), Ben Solo/Kylo Ren went out in 'The Rise of Skywalker', removing him from any obvious sequels. Still, Adam Driver—who, let’s be honest, was one of the few consistently praised parts of the new trilogy—had this itch to do more with the character. Soderbergh revealed that Driver approached him to take a crack at Ben Solo's post-trilogy story. Kind of wild, since Driver never struck me as the guy most likely to stay onboard the Star Wars machine, but apparently this was his personal passion project, not Lucasfilm dragging him back with a dump truck full of cash.

To be clear, Soderbergh wasn't knocking on Lucasfilm's door himself. Quoting Soderbergh on how this even happened:

'It was strictly Adam saying, "I think there’s still somewhere to go with this character." That’s how it started. Otherwise, I never in a million years would have found myself in that universe again.'

Why Isn't This Movie Happening?

Star Wars has a notorious graveyard of dead projects, so of course this one didn’t get far. The rumor mill started churning again earlier this year after Kathleen Kennedy announced she was leaving Lucasfilm, replaced by Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan. Suddenly fans wondered, 'Wait, does that mean all those scrapped movies are rising from the dead?' Time to burst that bubble.

When The Playlist straight-up asked Soderbergh if he’d revisit the Ben Solo idea, he didn't even bother to sugarcoat it:

'Nope.'

He did go on to clarify why:

'Look, if it was gonna happen, it would have happened... It’s that simple.'

What Was the Plan?

Don’t expect some epic outline or secret script leaks. Aside from the fact that it would have taken place after 'The Rise of Skywalker,' basically nothing concrete came out. Literally just 'What if Ben Solo survived?' Only reason we even know about any of this is because Driver mentioned he tried to make it happen, and Soderbergh (who's been busy dropping movies like 'Presence' and 'Black Bag' in 2025, plus 'The Christophers' soon) was asked about it in interviews.

A Filmmaker's Take-It-Or-Leave-It Attitude

Soderbergh's whole vibe on this is classic: grateful for the experience, but not losing any sleep over it:

'As soon as it became apparent, OK, not gonna happen, I sat down and started writing [something else]... It’s like, "OK, new scenario, let’s get cracking." At a certain point, it’s like complaining about the weather. You just gotta keep moving. I don’t regret one minute of the time we spent working on that... I felt the work was good. It’s just good for you to be in that room and working on it. It’s like CrossFit—it’s good for you. It’ll have a residual effect that will be unexpected at some point.'

TL;DR (Because Even Star Wars Rumors Have a Lot of Footnotes)

• Adam Driver wanted a Ben Solo spinoff and recruited Steven Soderbergh. Not the other way around.
• The project was set after 'The Rise of Skywalker,' but that’s about as far as details went.
• Leadership changes at Lucasfilm briefly sparked speculation about reviving old projects, but Soderbergh shot down any chance of his Ben Solo idea returning.
• Soderbergh has, as of now, moved on to other films, and he’s pretty zen about the whole thing. Not bitter, not nostalgic.

So if you were hoping for another round of Adam Driver monologuing in a galaxy far, far away, don't hold your breath. This one's permanently shelved. But in this franchise? Who knows what’ll get revived next week.