Star Wars superfans are still trying to convince Disney to make canceled movie The Hunt For Ben Solo a reality — and they’re putting their money where their mouths are.
Last year, a ‘Ben Solo Missing’ poster was plastered all over Los Angeles and was subsequently seen across the world, having been translated into over 11 languages. Now, its creator has taken the next step and fully funded a takeover of two more billboards in Times Square.
One was featured on top of a building in Times Square on January 3, 2026, the other was visible in Times Square on January 5, right above the Pele store. This location also happens to be in close proximity to the Disney store — and it’s Disney these hardcore Star Wars fans hope will reconsider its decision to ditch The Hunt For Ben Solo.
Both billboards featured Ben’s silhouette with the phrase, “May 2026 renew hope in the galaxy and bring him home,” as well as the hashtag #thehuntforbensolo, with the latest also including the campaign’s website, savebensolo.com.
It’s primarily the work of Brianna Johns, writer, voice actor, and self-confessed “avid” Star Wars fan. Johns told IGN The Hunt For Ben Solo fan campaign has a few hundred active fans on its Discord server, but insisted “the desire for this film’s fruition is alive and well fandom-wide.” Johns pointed out that over 7,100 people have signed the petition on Change.org since its creation in October, when Kylo Ren / Ben Solo actor Adam Driver dropped the news about his work with Steven Soderbergh to continue Ben’s story. “The news was the catalyst for my missing posters and why I plastered them around LA,” Johns explained. “Since then, they’ve been seen all around the world.”
Late last year, Driver dropped a bombshell to the Associated Press that he’d spent the last few years developing The Hunt for Ben Solo. The Lucasfilm-approved but Bob Iger-nixed direct follow-up to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was confirmed by attached director Steven Soderbergh, and on multiple occasions the fanbase has hired planes to do fly-overs of the Walt Disney Studio lot in Burbank to rally support — something Rey Skywalker actress Daisy Ridley has responded positively to.
Soderbergh, the brains behind the project, has revealed that the decision not to greenlight the completed Lucasfilm script for the film was a first for Disney. “In the aftermath of the HFBS situation, I asked Kathy Kennedy if [Lucasfilm] had ever turned in a finished movie script for greenlight to Disney and had it rejected,” Soderbergh said. “She said no, this was a first.”
The movie would have taken place following The Rise of Skywalker and centered on Adam Driver’s character Kylo Ren and his quest for redemption. Driver told the Associated Press that The Hunt For Ben Solo was “one of the coolest f—king scripts I had ever been a part of.”
Driver played Ben Solo / Kylo Ren in each of the three films in Lucasfilm’s Sequel Trilogy, with his final appearance in 2019’s divisive The Rise of Skywalker. “I always was interested in doing another Star Wars,” Driver said. He revealed he had been in talks about another Star Wars movie since 2021, and that Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy had “reached out.”
“I always said: with a great director and a great story, I’d be there in a second,” Driver commented. “I loved that character and loved playing him.”
Driver said Lucasfilm “loved the idea” and “totally understood our angle and why we were doing it.” However, Disney CEO Bob Iger and Disney co-chairman Alan Bergman said no. “They didn’t see how Ben Solo was alive. And that was that,” he said. Soderbergh told AP: “I really enjoyed making the movie in my head. I’m just sorry the fans won’t get to see it.”
Driver was described as feeling mystified by the decision, insisting the plan was to “be judicial 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 pointed to the much-loved Empire Strikes Back as being “the standard of what those movies were.”
If feels as if The Hunt for Ben Solo is well and truly dead, but Brianna Johns refuses to give up. “Ben’s disappearance not only left a hole in the hearts of Star Wars fans everywhere, it also tore through the very fabric of the franchise,” Johns told IGN. “The Hunt For Ben Solo reignited a spark within us all and brought us together, a momentous occasion for a fandom typically at odds. Now fans of all ages from around the globe have mobilized for a common goal: to bring Ben home and continue his saga.
“Why will we succeed? We’re passionate and resolute; we plan to be so good they can’t ignore us. What’s more, Disney already spent $3 million on the film’s script and plans to spend $24 billion on content for this year. We hope our actions will inspire them to open their imaginations and wallets the same way we have. We know what we’re asking, the cost of a film of this size to go into production and the marketing and distribution that come after. We believe if we can prove the demand is there, they will reconsider. That’s our hope. And isn’t hope what Star Wars is all about?
“The Hunt For Ben Solo Fan Campaign is prepared to go the distance for this film to be made. I purchased two billboards at the start of the year to show the fans are still here and we’re just getting started. We’ve got creativity, money, and time. (We’d love to spend that money on movie tickets.) Our goal at the end of the day? Kicking back with buckets of popcorn as we watch The Hunt For Ben Solo in theaters. Honestly, we don’t think that’s too much to ask.”
Last month, Daisy Ridley told IGN, “I knew a piece of it. I heard rumblings,” when asked about Driver’s revelation. “I have lots of friends who are crew, so things always travel like that. But, whoa! When the story came out, no, I was like, ‘Oh, my God!’ And it was him that said it, right?” Ridley added that she found the fan campaign that sprung up following the news heart-warming.
“I do love when there is a collective of positivity,” she said. “The way the internet seems to have rallied to try and get it to happen. I think one), it’s fantastic for us all. It’s good for us to all be united about something in a really positive way. Obviously, everyone knows he was a very popular character, but it was also lovely to think, ‘Wow, people really, really care and want this.’ I just… I like it. I like when people join forces — excuse the pun — from all around the world, all different sorts of people. I just love that the Star Wars fandom is such a huge and gorgeous array of different points of view and different people, and the fact that everyone is really behind this thing, I think, is just sort of lovely, in a time that is so f***ing nuts for probably every single person on this Earth. I think it’s wonderful. So I was surprised, and honestly, I felt joyful about how it went down.”
In the short term, Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian & Grogu movie comes out May 2026, then Shawn Levy’s Star Wars: Starfighter releases May 2027. TV wise, Ahsoka Season 2 is in development but without a release date.
Ridley’s Rey film, assuming it actually gets made, takes place roughly 15 years after the events of The Rise of Skywalker as she looks to rebuild the Jedi Order.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
