Adam Driver: ‘No more Star Wars’ after Disney nixed Ben Solo movie

Fans flew a banner over Disney’s Burbank lot and bought a Times Square billboard to save The Hunt for Ben Solo. Adam Driver called it “pretty incredible,” then said the movie is over.

Adam Driver has a message for the fans who rented a plane on his behalf: Thanks, but Ben Solo is staying dead.

“It’s over,” Driver said on The Rich Eisen Show on Wednesday, Nov. 4. “No more Star Wars. We tried.”

He was talking about The Hunt for Ben Solo, the Star Wars movie he spent about two years developing with director Steven Soderbergh. Lucasfilm liked it. Disney’s top brass passed. “They were like, ‘No, he’s dead,'” Driver said.

Driver allowed that someone at Disney or Lucasfilm could still revive it “if they wanted to.” He isn’t holding his breath. “I think the ship has sailed, though,” he said.

He was on the show promoting Paper Tiger, James Gray’s crime drama with Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller. Neon opens it in select theaters Nov. 13 and wide Nov. 20.

Here’s Driver’s conversation with Rich Eisen:

What did Adam Driver say about the Ben Solo fan campaign?

He was impressed. Driver said he never expected billboards or “people flying planes over Disney.” He added, “The fans’ response to it, though, was pretty incredible.”

He wasn’t exaggerating. In October 2025, fans paid for a plane to fly a “Save The Hunt for Ben Solo” banner over Disney’s studio lot in Burbank, Calif., Variety reported. Days later, a billboard went up in Times Square at 1500 Broadway, addressed to Driver, with the hashtag #THBS.

That’s a lot of jet fuel for a character who, as of The Rise of Skywalker, is technically a pile of empty clothes.

What was The Hunt for Ben Solo about?

Driver went public with it in October 2025, in an interview with The Associated Press. The movie would have picked up after The Rise of Skywalker (2019), the film where Ben Solo dies.

He said he started talking with Lucasfilm about a return in 2021. Soderbergh pitched the story to Lucasfilm leaders, including then-president Kathleen Kennedy and Dave Filoni. Scott Z. Burns and Jules Asner, writing as Rebecca Blunt, worked on the script, TheWrap reported.

Lucasfilm was on board. Then it went up the ladder. “We took it to Bob Iger and Alan Bergman and they said no,” Driver told the AP. “They didn’t see how Ben Solo was alive.”

Soderbergh confirmed the project on Bluesky at the time. “I’m just sorry the fans won’t get to see it,” he wrote.

Is The Hunt for Ben Solo ever happening?

Not according to anyone with the power to make it. At D23 in August, Dave Filoni told Deadline, “The force is not with us in that regard.” He added, “I love the love you feel for it.”

Filoni took over Lucasfilm in January as president and chief creative officer when Kennedy stepped down. He shares the top job with co-president Lynwen Brennan.

So Lucasfilm said no in August. Now Driver has closed the door from his side, too.

Has Adam Driver said he’s done with Star Wars before?

Yes. In December 2023, he told the SmartLess podcast, “They’re doing stuff, but not with me. I’m not doing it anymore.”

Nobody outside Lucasfilm knew about the Soderbergh pitch back then. Knowing about it now, that quote reads a little differently.

The difference now is the fans. They spent a year campaigning, and Driver clearly noticed. He just doesn’t think it changes anything.

Where can I watch Adam Driver as Kylo Ren?

On Disney+. All three sequel trilogy movies stream there:

• Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

• Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

• Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

Kylo Ren also still shows up in Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance at Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, so the parks haven’t let him go either.

Ben Solo spent three movies trying to let the past die. Driver, it turns out, is much better at it.

Article compiled and written by Kambrea Pratt (editor-in-chief), Derek Gibbs (beat editor) and the Pirates & Princesses newsroom. Pirates & Princesses is part of WebReef Media.

Pirates and Princesses is your destination for Disney news, theme park updates, and the pop culture you love. From Disney cruises and travel tips to Disney fashion, food, collectibles, and movie news, PNP covers it all. Visit us at piratesandprincesses.net for daily coverage. Follow PNP on Facebook and Instagram, and listen to the Pirates & Princesses podcast on Apple Podcasts and YouTube.

Hat Tips:

• TheWrap (Nov. 4, 2026), Driver’s Rich Eisen Show quotes, Paper Tiger and the screenwriters

• Dark Horizons (Nov. 4, 2026), the Rich Eisen quotes and Filoni’s D23 comment

• The Blast via Yahoo (Nov. 4, 2026), the full “no, he’s dead” quote and the fan reaction quote

• Variety Australia (Oct. 26, 2025), the Burbank plane banner and the Times Square billboard

• WDWNT (Oct. 20, 2025), Driver’s AP quotes about Iger and Bergman and Soderbergh’s statement

• GamesRadar+ (Oct. 21, 2025), the 2021 start and the Lucasfilm pitch to Kennedy and Filoni

• WDWNT (Dec. 28, 2023), Driver’s SmartLess comments

• tbreak (Aug. 16, 2026), Filoni’s D23 quote

• ILM (Jan. 15, 2026), Lucasfilm’s leadership change

• Wikipedia (retrieved Nov. 4, 2026), Paper Tiger’s release dates

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