'Save The Hunt for Ben Solo’ Banner Flown Over Disney Studios By 'Star Wars' Fans
Image Source: Forbes
Fans have not been kind to the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy or its directors, J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson, nor to Kathleen Kennedy and her leadership of Lucasfilm since 2012.
But now the furor is targeted not against Lucasfilm, but Disney’s CEO Bob Iger and Alan Bergman, co-chairman of Disney Entertainment.
A few days ago, Adam Driver revealed that he, director Stephen Soderbergh, Rebecca Blunt, and Scott Z. Burns had written a script for a film set post The Rise of Skywalker. Titled The Hunt for Ben Solo, the film would have been a redemption arc for the son of Leia Organa and Han Solo.
When Driver and Soderbergh presented their pitch to Kennedy, Dave Filoni, and Cary Beck, they were on board: “They totally understood our angle and why we were doing it.”
But when they brought their idea to Iger and Bergman, they shut the project down, as they did not believe that Ben Solo was still alive.
Since the news broke, the hashtag #SaveTheHuntforBenSlo has not only gone viral but even airborne: Fans hired a plane with a banner and had it flying over the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California.
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Image Source: Collider
Image Source: Collider
"I really hope this banner shows the decision makers at Disney that the fans really do want this," said Lianna Al Allaf, the Star Wars fan who commissioned the banner, “I hope this banner shows just how much the character of Ben Solo means to so many of us, and that the fans really do want this movie.”
Neither Disney nor Lucasfilm has commented on the matter, but it seems strange that the argument that Ben Solo seemingly died at the end of Episode IX would be the sole reason for rejecting the project. Star Wars has brought back (Darth) Maul, who was cut in half in The Phantom Menace (although he was technically not dead), and more recently, Assajj Ventress in the animated Tales of the Underground, so “no one’s really ever gone”.
Monetary concerns likely have not been the reason for the project’s turndown either, as Driver and Soderbergh did not aim for a big blockbuster budget, but for a smaller, more intimate film:
“We wanted to be judicial about how to spend money and do it for less than most but in the same spirit of what those movies are, which is handmade and character-driven.”, said Driver.
Maybe the Disney officials were afraid that releasing a Star Wars movie with Ben Solo set directly after the controversial The Rise of Skywalker would enrage even more fans.
For now, it seems that they have achieved exactly that by doing the opposite.
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