“Logo text You could almost call it the Rise of Solo. Or maybe A New New Hope. Weeks after it was revealed that the Walt Disney Company had squashed the idea of a Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker spinoff centered on Ben Solo, the son of Han Solo played by Adam Driver, the idea”, — write: www.hollywoodreporter.com
You could almost call it the Rise of Solo. Or maybe A New New Hope.
Weeks after it was revealed that the Walt Disney Company had squashed the idea of a Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker spinoff centered on Ben Solo, the son of Han Solo played by Adam Driver, the idea refuses to die among fans of the galaxy far far away.
A plane with the banner “Shareholders Want The Hunt for Ben Solo,” the latter part being the hoped-for movie’s title, flew over Disney’s Burbank-based headquarters in the 11 am hour Thursday, just hours after the company had its earnings call.
It’s the latest banner-flying move (fans hired a plane with a banner reading “Save the Hunt for Ben Solo” in late October) and comes the same week as flyers showed up in Los Angeles’ mid-Wilshire area on lampposts and street signs, taking the form of missing persons posters.
“Missing” and “Have You Seen This Man?” flank a photo of Driver as Ben Solo, also known as Kylo Ren. On top of personal information, it notes that the person was last seen five years and 10 months ago, referring to the release date of The Rise of Skywalkerwhich occurred in December 2019.
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All this hullaballoo comes after Driver, in an October interview with the Associated Press, revealed that he and acclaimed filmmaker Steven Soderbergh came up with an idea and how a script was written by Scott Z. Burns. It was even given the thumbs up by Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy.
“We took it to Bob Iger and Alan Bergman and they said no,” Driver said. “They didn’t see how Ben Solo was alive. And that was that.”
Soderbergh confirmed the project and its being blown up, Alderaan style.
The irony here, however, is that Rise of Skywalker has such a poor reputation among fans and audiences in general that it killed Star Wars movies for years. Next summers The Mandalorian and Grogu will be the first movie since 2019.
On top of that, the character was killed at the end of the movie in a redemptive act. The idea of resurrecting him would go against his sacrifice and lend more incredulity to the Star Wars franchise’ very loose concept of death, as it has brought back such characters as Emperor Palpatine, Death Maul, and even Boba Fett.
Still, as any decent Star Wars fan could tell you, rebellions are built on hope. And right now there is a hope among a faction that their actions can change Jedi minds.