Regardless of which approach you have a look at it, the “Star Wars” franchise has modified dramatically over the past 10 years, shifting from a sequence based round cinematic occasions to a primarily streaming-only tv enterprise. Whereas Disney and Lucasfilm are placing “Star Wars” again into the cinema with the upcoming “Starfighter” and “The Mandalorian and Grogu,” the previous continues to be an unknown amount, whereas the latter feels much less like an occasion and extra like a big-screen model of a small-screen present. Sadly, that is just about what we have now to work with, seeing as how the franchise has gone via an incredibly massive variety of false begins and near-misses to finish up at these two future options.
A kind of near-misses has simply been revealed because of Adam Driver’s interview with AP Information, and it is a doozy. In accordance with the actor, who portrayed Kylo Ren née Ben Solo within the Sequel Trilogy, he and Lucasfilm had been engaged on a solo movie entitled “The Hunt for Ben Solo,” and the director that they had lined up was none apart from Academy Award Winner Steven Soderbergh. Relatively than merely an idle pitch or kernel of an thought, plainly Soderbergh and Driver not solely had a accomplished script in hand but additionally the approval of Lucasfilm brass, together with Kathleen Kennedy. Nonetheless, once they introduced the challenge to Disney CEO Bob Iger and co-chairman Alan Bergman, the executives turned down the thought outright for no higher purpose than “they did not see how Ben Solo was alive,” as Driver defined. That is, to place it mildly, a bizarrely pedantic purpose to cancel what possible would’ve been an enchanting, presumably even nice new “Star Wars” movie, and is a fairly good indication of why the franchise, because it stands, feels so creatively stagnant.
Driver and Soderbergh’s Ben Solo film had an thrilling crew hooked up
It is simple to grasp the sense of apathy many of us have about franchises lately, because it looks like most new installments exist extra for the assured paychecks than any inventive ardour. But this was not the case with Driver:
“I at all times was thinking about doing one other ‘Star Wars.’ I had been speaking about doing one other one since 2021. […] I at all times stated: With an incredible director and an incredible story, I might be there in a second. I beloved that character and beloved taking part in him.”
In accordance with Driver, he took his idea for the movie to Soderbergh (whom he labored with in “Logan Fortunate”), who then outlined a narrative with Rebecca Blunt (a pseudonym which possible belongs to Soderbergh’s spouse, Jules Asner) earlier than handing script duties to collaborator Scott Z. Burns. The outcome was invigorating, as Driver recalled:
“[It was] one of many coolest (expletive) scripts I had ever been part of. We offered the script to Lucasfilm. They beloved the thought. They completely understood our angle and why we had been doing it. We took it to Bob Iger and Alan Bergman they usually stated no. […] And that was that.”
In a press release given to AP Information, Soderbergh echoed Driver’s sentiments with a heavy dose of remorse:
“I actually loved making the film in my head. I am simply sorry the followers will not get to see it.”
It is a disgrace that the movie did not occur, particularly when Soderbergh has been on a sizzling streak just lately, as his movies “Kimi,” “Presence,” and “Black Bag” have been praised for being exceptionally intelligent style movies. Had the director been let unfastened on “Star Wars,” we could have had the primary really daring entry within the sequence since “The Final Jedi.”
The demise of the Ben Solo film is one more occasion of the problems with kowtowing to terrible followers
Divorced from the data of the final a number of years of “Star Wars” discourse, there are numerous situations of supposedly useless characters coming again to life inside “Star Wars” itself (Ben Kenobi’s Drive Ghost, for example). Sadly, one in every of probably the most controversial examples is of Emperor Palpatine’s return in “The Rise of Skywalker.” Criticisms of Palpatine’s return have largely revolved across the idea’s ham-fisted approach of making an attempt to tie all three “Star Wars” trilogies collectively inside a single concluding chapter. But, because of the best way discourse operates on social media — i.e., it turns into diminished to a single meme — it might be interpreted that the majority followers’ situation with the resurrection of the character is that he was resurrected in any respect.
In different phrases, it is totally possible that Iger and Bergman had been afraid of one other “By some means, Palpatine returned” meme catching fireplace in the event that they introduced the apparently useless Ben Solo again for a post-“Rise of Skywalker” movie. If that’s the case, then that is one more occasion of the “Star Wars” franchise meekly catering to the complaints of the loudest and most obnoxious followers, as seen within the case of “The Acolyte” and even “The Rise of Skywalker” itself. This, plus the lengthy record of cancelled tasks with large filmmakers, has turned “Star Wars” right into a depressingly risk-averse universe, with tasks like “Andor” changing into the exception and never the norm. It is ironic, contemplating that George Lucas’ authentic 1977 movie was one of many greatest dangers in cinema historical past. Although it is comprehensible why firm house owners would not wish to rock any boats, these in control of the galaxy far, far-off would do nicely to be much less involved with pleasing a number of the individuals the entire time.
