Steven Soderbergh felt "frustrated" and "disappointed" by the "insane" decision to axe his Ben Solo movie.
The Oscar-winning filmmaker had been working on plans to expand the Star Wars universe with The Hunt for Ben Solo - a spin-off film starring Adam Driver which would be set after the events of 2019's Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - but Soderbergh has now confirmed Disney bosses shelved the project without warning.
He told BK Mag: "We were all frustrated. You know, that was two and a half years of free work for me and Adam and [screenwriter] Rebecca Blunt.
"When Adam and I discussed him talking about it publicly, I said: 'Look, do not editorialize or speculate about the why. Just say what happened, because all we know is what happened.'
"The stated reason was: 'We don’t think Ben Solo could be alive.' And that was all we were told. And so there’s nothing to do about it, you know, except move on."
He went on to add: "I’d kind of made the movie in my head, and just felt bad that nobody else was going to get to see it.
"I thought the conversation was strictly going to be a practical one - where they go, what is this going to cost? And I had a really good answer for that. But it never even got to that point. It’s insane. We’re all very disappointed."
The film would have starred Driver as Kylo Ren - who was revealed to be Ben Solo, the son of Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) - who seemingly died at the end of The Rise of Skywalker.
The actor previously revealed the existence of the project in an interview in October and Soderbergh later admitted he "did not enjoy" having to keep the plans secret.
In a post on BlueSky, he explained: "For the record, I did not enjoy lying about the existence of The Hunt for Ben Solo, but it really did need to remain a secret … until now! …
"Also, in the aftermath of the HFBS [The Hunt for Ben Solo] situation, I asked [former Lucasfilm boss] Kathy Kennedy if LFL [Lucasfilm] had ever turned in a finished movie script for greenlight to Disney and had it rejected. She said no, this was a first."
