After Adam Driver revealed that Disney rejected a Star Wars spinoff centered on Ben Solo, fans of the character launched a full-scale campaign to bring the project back to life.
The movement, known online as #TheHuntForBenSolo for the title of the rejected script, quickly moved beyond social media. Fans began buying out billboards, plane banners, and even posting “missing” flyers outside Disney executives’ homes.
Driver told the Associated Press that he spent two years developing a film titled The Hunt for Ben Solo with director Steven Soderbergh and writers Rebecca Blunt and Scott Z. Burns.
The film, set after The Rise of Skywalker, had received support from Lucasfilm leadership before being rejected by Disney’s top executives. “We presented the script to Lucasfilm. They loved the idea,” Driver said. “We took it to Bob Iger and Alan Bergman, and they said no. They didn’t see how Ben Solo was alive. And that was that.”
From planes to posters: a fandom on a mission
Shortly after the interview dropped on Oct 20, a group of fans paid for a plane to fly over Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. The banner read, “Save #TheHuntForBenSolo.” Photos of the stunt spread rapidly across social media.
Then, only days later, another fan took things even further. B.D. Neagle, a longtime Star Wars enthusiast, purchased a digital billboard in New York City’s Times Square.
The message flashed every 28 minutes above Carlo’s Bake Shop at 1500 Broadway. It read, “For Adam. No one’s ever really gone. Hope lives. Ben is alive! #THBS.”
Neagle explained to Collider, “I’m just a fan who thought Ben’s story wasn’t finished. I wanted to do what I could to support the fandom and everyone attached to The Hunt for Ben Solo.” She added, “The intent was to show Disney this is what fans actually want. ‘No one’s ever really gone’ I believe, says it all.”
The online push for The Hunt for Ben Solo
Meanwhile, fans across X have coordinated tweetstorms using the #TheHuntForBenSolo hashtag.
Some also posted “missing persons” flyers outside Disney’s Burbank studios, demanding they “bring Ben home,” which they then tweeted about.
Although some of the tactics raised eyebrows, the campaign demonstrated just how passionate the “Reylo” and Ben Solo fanbases remain years after the sequel trilogy ended.
Supporters argue the project deserves another chance because, unlike many fan campaigns, this one centers on a completed script. “What makes this fight for Ben Solo different is that we know a finished script exists,” Neagle said to Collider. “It’s about fighting for a story that was ready to be told.”
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