We thought we saw the last of Kylo Ren, aka Ben Solo, in Star Wars, but he almost made a surprising comeback.

In a new interview, Adam Driver revealed that he had recruited none other than Steven Soderbergh to make a movie that would have followed the character after *The Rise of Skywalker*. However, the project was ultimately killed off by high-level Disney executives.

“It was called *The Hunt for Ben Solo* and it was really cool,” Driver told the Associated Press. “But it is no more, so I can finally talk about it.”

Driver explained, “I had been talking about doing another [Star Wars movie] since 2021. Kathleen [Kennedy] had reached out. I always said, ‘With a great director and a great story, I’d be there in a second. I loved that character and loved playing him.’”

He then teamed up with his *Logan Lucky* collaborator, the Oscar-winning Steven Soderbergh. Together with writer Rebecca Blunt, they outlined a story which was pitched to Lucasfilm executives. The response was positive enough that they hired Scott Z. Burns, a frequent Soderbergh collaborator, to write the script.

Driver described the script as “one of the coolest (expletive) scripts I had ever been a part of.” With a classic Star Wars character, Lucasfilm’s approval, a killer director, and an exciting script, it seemed like a perfect fit.

So, what went wrong?

“We presented the script to Lucasfilm. They loved the idea. They totally understood our angle and why we were doing it,” Driver said. “We took it to [Disney executives] Bob Iger and Alan Bergman and they said no. They didn’t see how Ben Solo was alive. And that was that.”

It’s worth noting that the character dies four times in *The Rise of Skywalker*, so convincing Disney of his survival was clearly a tough sell.

Driver also emphasized that they wanted the movie to be smaller and more affordable than most other Star Wars films. “We wanted to be judicious about how to spend money and be economical with it and do it for less than most but in the same spirit of what those movies are, which is handmade and character-driven,” he explained. “*Empire Strikes Back* being, in my opinion, the standard of what those movies were. But he [Soderbergh] is, to me, one of my favorite directors of all time. He lives his code, lives his ethics, doesn’t compromise.”

In the same piece, Soderbergh commented, “I really enjoyed making the movie in my head. I’m just sorry the fans won’t get to see it.”

So are we, Steven. So. Are. We.

io9 reached out to Lucasfilm for comment and will update this post if we hear back.

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