Adam Driver pitched a Ben Solo ‘Star Wars’ movie. Disney said no.

Hey there, Popculturology readers. Welcome to this special birthday edition of Popculturology. No, it’s not the newsletter’s birthday (that’s next week) — it’s mine. I turn 40 this weekend.

If you’re wondering what to get me for this milestone occasion, this is the perfect moment to upgrade your subscription to Popculturology (or any of the other newsletters here at The Omnicosm) if you’ve been waiting to make that jump.

I really, really need to discuss the revelation that Disney rejected a pitch from Adam Driver for a Ben Solo movie, but I need to first wrap my head around the concept that Tori Amos might have invented the pumpkin spice latte ...

BOOK NOOK

Here’s what I’ve been reading this week …

• The Ultimates Vol. 2: All Power to the People (Deniz Camp, Juan Frigeri, Alessandro Cappuccio)
• System Collapse (Martha Wells)

NEWS, NOTES & TRAILERS

Disney passed on Adam Driver’s Star Wars pitch

If I were CEO of Disney, and Adam Driver came to me with a pitch for a Ben Solo movie and already had Steven Soderbergh on board to direct and Scott Z. Burns on board to write the script, I’d green light that movie in a heartbeat.

Unfortunately, I’m not the CEO of Disney.

Driver, who played Kylo Ren/Ben Solo in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, revealed in a new interview with the Associated Press that his attempt to continue the story of that character was shot down by Disney.

“I always was interested in doing another Star Wars,” says Driver, who starred as Kylo Ren in the trilogy kicked off by The Force Awakens. “I had been talking about doing another one since 2021. [Kathleen Kennedy] had reached out. I always said: With a great director and a great story, I’d be there in a second. I loved that character and loved playing him.”

The actor did exactly as Kennedy suggested, enlisting Soderbergh and Burns, the director/writer duo behind Contagion, and getting the backing of Kennedy and Lucasfilm execs Cary Beck and Dave Filoni for what wound being “one of the coolest (expletive) scripts [Driver] had ever been a part of.”

With that kind of talent backing the movie, which Driver said was called The Hunt for Ben Solo, getting Disney to greenlight the film should’ve been easy, right?