Daisy Ridley says she was “surprised” to learn from Adam Driver that Lucasfilm had developed and then lost a Star Wars spin-off built around Kylo Ren’s redemption. Speaking during a recent press tour, the Rey Skywalker actor recalled that she had “heard rumblings” about the scrapped film, titled The Hunt for Ben Solo, but only discovered the full scope of the project when Driver went public with it earlier this autumn.
Driver previously revealed that he collaborated with director Steven Soderbergh and writer Scott Z. Burns on a post-Rise of Skywalker story in which Ben Solo survived and continued his path away from the dark side. They delivered a completed script to Lucasfilm, which internal leadership praised before sending it up the chain to Disney executives Bob Iger and Alan Bergman. According to Driver, the pair rejected the movie because they could not accept a version of canon where Ben still lived, ending two years of development on a project that had been greenlit in-house under the codename Quiet Leaves.
Ridley told interviewers she knew “a piece of it” through crew friends who had heard about the film, but said she reacted with “Oh my God” when she saw Driver’s comments and realized he had laid out the project in public. She called his decision to speak up “the big surprise of the year,” given his reputation for keeping Star Wars topics tightly guarded.
Her focus now sits with the fandom response. Ridley praised the campaign that erupted after Driver’s reveal, which has included a #SaveTheHuntForBenSolo banner flown over Disney’s Burbank lot and a Times Square billboard urging the studio to reconsider. She said she loves “a collective of positivity” and described the internet rallying around the idea as “fantastic,” adding that it feels good to see people “from all around the world” united around one character’s unfinished story.
Fan enthusiasm stands in contrast to signals from inside the Driver–Soderbergh camp, where sources have indicated they view the movie as permanently shelved, even as they appreciate the support. Director Steven Soderbergh has joked that he enjoyed making the film “in my head,” while apologizing that viewers will not see it.
Ridley, meanwhile, continues to point fans toward the announced Rey Skywalker feature. She recently reaffirmed that the film, to be directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, remains in development and said the “hurdles are vast” on any production but that she believes “the wait will be worth it.” Her backing of the Ben Solo campaign and her confidence in Rey’s return underline how strongly the sequel-trilogy leads remain tied to their characters, even as Disney’s film slate shifts and long-gestating projects stall.
