The Hunt for Ben Solo Fan Campaign Takes the Fight to The Mandalorian and Grogu Premiere in Hollywood

The Hunt For Ben Solo instrumentality run is inactive going, and its latest stunt saw a motortruck ellipse the Mandalorian and Grogu premiere successful Hollywood.

The Star Wars superfans down the run person spent a twelvemonth present trying to person Disney to marque canceled movie The Hunt For Ben Solo a reality, putting wealth into assorted initiatives designed to support Adam Driver’s quality beforehand of mind.

Late past year, Driver dropped a bombshell to the Associated Press that he’d spent the past fewer years processing The Hunt for Ben Solo. The Lucasfilm-approved but Bob Iger-nixed nonstop follow-up to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was confirmed by attached manager Steven Soderbergh, and connected aggregate occasions the fanbase has hired planes to bash fly-overs of the Walt Disney Studio batch successful Burbank to rally enactment — thing Rey Skywalker histrion Daisy Ridley has responded positively to.

The movie would person taken spot pursuing The Rise of Skywalker and centered connected Adam Driver’s quality 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 portion of.”

Driver played Ben Solo / Kylo Ren successful each of the 3 films successful Lucasfilm’s Sequel Trilogy, with his last quality successful 2019’s divisive The Rise of Skywalker. “I ever was funny successful doing different Star Wars,” Driver said. He revealed helium had been successful talks astir different Star Wars movie since 2021, and that past Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy had “reached out.”

“I ever said: with a large manager and a large story, I’d beryllium determination successful a second,” Driver commented. “I loved that quality and loved playing him."

Driver said Lucasfilm “loved the idea” and “totally understood our space and wherefore we were doing it.” However, Disney CEO Bob Iger and Disney co-chairman Alan Bergman said no. "They didn’t spot however Ben Solo was alive. And that was that,” helium said. Soderbergh told AP: “I truly enjoyed making the movie successful my head. I’m conscionable atrocious the fans won’t get to spot it.”

Driver was described arsenic feeling mystified by the decision, insisting the program was to “be judicial astir however to walk wealth and beryllium economical with it, and bash it for little than astir but successful the aforesaid tone of what those movies are, which is handmade and character-driven.” He pointed to the much-loved Empire Strikes Back arsenic being “the modular of what those movies were.”

The Hunt For Ben Solo sounds dead, but Brianna Johns, writer, dependable actor, and self-confessed “avid” Star Wars fan, has not fixed up hope. Johns, alongside different members of the campaign, arranged for a mobile billboard motortruck to ellipse the satellite premiere of The Mandalorian and Grogu successful Hollywood, CA. The motortruck featured ample achromatic substance connected some sides that said "WHERE'S BEN SOLO?" portion showcasing the campaign's calling card, Ben's Missing Poster, connected the back.

“This motortruck is our mode of showing Disney we’re inactive here,” Johns told IGN. “We saw idiosyncratic from Industrial Light & Magic posted our motortruck to their Instagram communicative and are taking that arsenic a bully sign, trusting that connection of rima dispersed wrong the event.”

The aim, Johns said, is for the instrumentality run to clasp 1 large lawsuit astatine slightest each different period “to animate fans and prosecute the C-Suite.” In January, it was billboards, successful March determination was a beingness astatine Toronto Comicon. They adjacent had a nonrecreational skydiver leap retired of a plane, and held a ticketed peculiar screening of The Last Jedi successful April. Now, it’s the premiere truck.

“Count connected much meetups, much efforts and ways to assistance online and off,” Johns continued. “We’ll support showing up and making sound nevertheless we can. Our wide extremity is the aforesaid arsenic it ever was: We privation Ben Solo’s instrumentality connected the large screen.”

Last year, Daisy Ridley told IGN she’d heard “rumblings” of Adam Driver’s revelations astir the movie. “I person tons of friends who are crew, truthful things ever question similar that. But, whoa! When the communicative came out, no, I was like, 'Oh, my God!' And it was him that said it, right?” Ridley added that she recovered the instrumentality run that sprung up pursuing the quality heart-warming.

“I bash emotion erstwhile determination is simply a corporate of positivity,” she said. “The mode the net seems to person rallied to effort and get it to happen. I deliberation one), it's fantastic for america all. It's bully for america to each beryllium agreed astir thing successful a truly affirmative way. Obviously, everyone knows helium was a precise fashionable character, but it was besides beauteous to think, 'Wow, radical really, truly attraction and privation this.' I just... I similar it. I similar erstwhile radical articulation forces — excuse the pun — from each astir the world, each antithetic sorts of people. I conscionable emotion that the Star Wars fandom is specified a immense and gorgeous array of antithetic points of presumption and antithetic people, and the information that everyone is truly down this thing, I think, is conscionable benignant of lovely, successful a clip that is truthful f***ing nuts for astir apt each azygous idiosyncratic connected this Earth. I deliberation it's wonderful. So I was surprised, and honestly, I felt joyful astir however it went down.”

In the abbreviated term, Jon Favreau's The Mandalorian & Grogu movie is retired imminently, past Shawn Levy's Star Wars: Starfighter releases May 2027. TV wise, Ahsoka Season 2 is successful development. Ridley's Rey film, assuming it really gets made, takes spot astir 15 years aft the events of The Rise of Skywalker arsenic she looks to rebuild the Jedi Order.

Image credit: Brianna Johns | @bananajohns.

Wesley is Director, News astatine IGN. Find him connected Twitter astatine @wyp100. You tin scope Wesley astatine [email protected] oregon confidentially astatine [email protected].