For a few months, Star Wars fans have been buzzing about The Hunt for Ben Solo, a proposed Star Wars film that would somehow bring back Adam Driver as Kylo Ren a.k.a. Ben Solo. Despite the character seemingly dying in The Rise of Skywalker, the movie would revive the character once more (we’ll avoid the obvious “somehow Ben Solo returned” joke).
Speaking to IGN, Daisy Ridley, who played Rey in the Star Wars sequels, was asked about the proposed film and her support for it. She also expressed surprise it was Driver discussing it given the man’s notoriously quiet persona outside of press junkets.
“I knew a piece of it. I heard rumblings," Ridley said. "I have lots of friends who are crew, so things always travel like that. But, whoa! When the story came out, no, I was like, 'Oh, my God!' And it was him that said it, right? It was funny because, like, 'Oh, wow, Adam is saying it,' and that's the big surprise of the year.”
The movie first came up when Driver told the Associated Press in October that he had been working on a film that would have resurrected Ben Solo after his death in Episode IX and put him on a path to redemption. Driver came up with the story and reached out to Oscar-winning director Stephen Soderbergh (whom he’d worked with on Logan Lucky) to develop it. According to reports, the movie had a fully completed script before the powers that be at Disney canceled the project, supposedly not grasping how Ben could have survived.
Since Driver's revelation, fans have been pushing for the film to be made. The efforts have so far ranged from an online petition to one fan even hiring a plane to fly a banner over Disney headquarters demanding the movie get made. It’s a surprising reaction, yet it shows that Ben/Kylo had a larger fanbase than most anticipated.
It’s logical the film would have had Ridley reprise her role as Rey, although Ridley was quiet about that. But she did share some nice views on the fandom.
Daisy Ridley on the Star Wars fandom
Star Wars fan discourse can be a tricky thing to judge. That’s especially true for the sequels, which are divisive among fans, to say the least. However, Ridley says she was happy with most of the fan reactions to her character.
“I do love when there is a collective of positivity," she said. "The way the internet seems to have rallied to try and get [the movie] to happen. I think one, it's fantastic for us all. It's good for us to all be united about something in a really positive way. Obviously, everyone knows he was a very popular character, but it was also lovely to think, 'Wow, people really, really care and want this.' I just... I like it. I like when people join forces — excuse the pun — from all around the world, all different sorts of people. I just love that the Star Wars fandom is such a huge and gorgeous array of different points of view and different people, and the fact that everyone is really behind this thing, I think, is just sort of lovely, in a time that is so f***ing nuts for probably every single person on this Earth. I think it's wonderful. So I was surprised, and honestly, I felt joyful about how it went down.”
Ridley did touch on the plans for a new film set 15 years after The Rise of Skywalker with Rey forming a new Jedi Order. She promised it was still in development and “worth the wait."
"The hurdles are vast," she said. "But with this particularly, I know that incredible voices and creatives are part of it, and I know the wait will be worth it.”
It’s uncertain if the fan response will have enough impact on Lucasfilm and Disney change their minds and get this Ben Solo movie made, but if it does, Ridley is likely as excited as anyone else to see this Star Wars saga continue.
The Star Wars movies are streaming on Disney+.