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 collection based totally 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 remains 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 now we have to work with, seeing as how the franchise has gone by means of an incredibly massive variety of false begins and near-misses to finish up at these two future options.
A type of near-misses has simply been revealed due to Adam Driver’s interview with AP Information, and it is a doozy. In keeping 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 they’d lined up was none apart from Academy Award Winner Steven Soderbergh. Reasonably than merely an idle pitch or kernel of an thought, evidently Soderbergh and Driver not solely had a accomplished script in hand but additionally the approval of Lucasfilm brass, together with Kathleen Kennedy. Nevertheless, after they introduced the undertaking to Disney CEO Bob Iger and co-chairman Alan Bergman, the executives turned down the thought outright for no higher cause than “they did not see how Ben Solo was alive,” as Driver defined. That is, to place it mildly, a bizarrely pedantic cause to cancel what possible would’ve been a captivating, probably even nice new “Star Wars” movie, and is a reasonably good indication of why the franchise, because it stands, feels so creatively stagnant.
Driver and Soderbergh’s Ben Solo film had an thrilling workforce connected
It is simple to grasp the sense of apathy many people have about franchises as of late, 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 all the time was focused on doing one other ‘Star Wars.’ I had been speaking about doing one other one since 2021. […] I all the time mentioned: With a terrific director and a terrific story, I would be there in a second. I cherished that character and cherished taking part in him.”
In keeping 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 cherished 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 mentioned no. […] And that was that.”
In an announcement 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 scorching streak not too long ago, as his movies “Kimi,” “Presence,” and “Black Bag” have been praised for being exceptionally intelligent style movies. Had the director been let free on “Star Wars,” we might have had the primary really daring entry within the collection since “The Final Jedi.”
The loss of life of the Ben Solo film is yet one more occasion of the problems with kowtowing to terrible followers
Divorced from the information 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 all 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, due to the way in which discourse operates on social media — i.e., it turns into diminished to a single meme — it might be interpreted that almost all followers’ challenge 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 frightened of one other “Someway, Palpatine returned” meme catching fireplace in the event that they introduced the apparently useless Ben Solo again for a post-“Rise of Skywalker” movie. In that case, then that is yet 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 checklist of cancelled initiatives with large filmmakers, has turned “Star Wars” right into a depressingly risk-averse universe, with initiatives like “Andor” changing into the exception and never the norm. It is ironic, contemplating that George Lucas’ unique 1977 movie was one of many greatest dangers in cinema historical past. Although it is comprehensible why firm house owners would not need to rock any boats, these accountable for the galaxy far, far-off would do properly to be much less involved with pleasing a few of the folks the entire time.
