Last year, Adam Driver, who played Kylo Ren-Ben Solo-in "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" and "The Rise of Skywalker," said in an interview that he had been working with director Steven Soderbergh for several years on a script for the film "The Hunt for Ben Solo." The project was conceived as a direct sequel to "The Rise of Skywalker" and was to tell the story of the hero's redemption.
According to Driver, it was "one of the coolest scripts" of his career. Lucasfilm approved the idea, but Disney management, led by Bob Iger, ultimately refused to greenlight the project. Soderbergh later confirmed that this was the first time Disney had rejected a finished Lucasfilm script.
Upon learning of this, fans began demanding that the film be brought back into production: launching petitions, organizing campaigns on social networks, and hanging posters with calls to "save Ben Solo" around the world, trying to attract Disney's attention. Now the movement has reached a new level-campaign participants have paid for the placement of two advertising billboards in Times Square in New York. One of them is installed next to the official Disney store, the second is above the Pele store.
Both billboards feature a silhouette of Ben Solo with the inscription:"May 2026 restore hope to the galaxy and bring him home", as well as the hashtag#TheHuntForBenSolo.
This initiative was largely made possible by Briana Jones, a screenwriter and voice actress who is a longtime fan of "Star Wars." It was she who started hanging posters all over Los Angeles back in October, after which the idea was picked up by fans from different countries.
Despite the fact that Disney has not yet commented on the situation, Jones told IGN that she is not going to back down:
"Why do we believe in success? Because we have enthusiasm and determination. We're going to make it so good that we can't be ignored. Disney has already spent about three million dollars on the script and plans to invest 24 billion in content this year. We hope our actions will inspire them to open their imaginations-and wallets-as wide as we have. We understand what we're asking for: a film of this scale requires significant production, marketing, and distribution costs. But if we prove that the demand exists, they may reconsider their decision. That's our hope. And isn't hope what "Star Wars" is all about?"
In conclusion, Jones added that they "have creativity, money and time," and her ultimate goal is simple: to one day sit in a movie theater with a bucket of popcorn and watch "The Hunt for Ben Solo" on the big screen.