‘Star Wars’ Fans Haven’t Given Up on Ben Solo’s Cinematic Return

Last year, we learned we could’ve had a Star Wars movie focused on Adam Driver’s Ben Solo in the aftermath of Rise of Skywalker. Titled The Hunt for Ben Solo, it’d have had Steven Soderbergh as director and writer, which on its face sounds like a movie fans would dig. But Disney killed that idea, in part because they felt Ben pretty definitively died, and fans have since stewed in resentment for what can’t be.

In the months since, some have taken it upon themselves to get Disney to reverse its decision. Recently, IGN interviewed Brianna Johns, a writer and voice actor leading the charge in this endeavor. Where Driver and Soderbergh have generally accepted the film’s fate and moved on, Johns feels news of Hunt’s cancellation “tore through the very fabric of the franchise. The Hunt For Ben Solo reignited a spark within us all and brought us together. […] Now fans of all ages from around the globe have mobilized for a common goal: to bring Ben home and continue his saga.”

On a large scale, Johns and her cohorts have created “Missing” posters and bought ad space on Times Square billboards calling for the Ben Solo movie to be greenlit. Addition efforts include a standard petition, sending letters to Disney, and even a fan meetup at the end of the month—as she told IGN, their plan is to be “so good [Disney] can’t ignore us,” and the hope is for more fans to join them in getting this effort off the ground.

This play to make the Ben Solo movie happen is one of many fan-driven efforts to reach out to corporations that cropped up throughout 2025. The Avatar fandom is also fighting for a movie to come out—specifically bringing The Legend of Aang back to theaters after it was kicked down Paramount+—and more recently, the Stranger Things community’s hope for a secret ninth episode that concludes the just-ended series in a theoretically better fashion. The latter didn’t pan out, but the other two are currently ongoing.

Who knows if fans will get what they want when it comes to Ben, though. They may not be giving up on this film, but Disney sure seems ready to move on from anything directly connected to the Sequel Trilogy so it can go and chart a new path for the franchise.

Update (1/11/2026 @ 11:52 AM ET): This article has been changed to correct the interviewee’s surname, and we regret the error. 

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