Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger will officially retire by the end of 2026 after nearly two decades as CEO, much to the delight of Star Wars fans. Iger’s faced relentless criticism from the most passionate of fans ever since his rejection of “The Hunt for Ben Solo”, a follow-up film to the latest Star Wars movie, “The Rise of Skywalker”.
Responsible for the acquisition of Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and 21st Century Fox, Iger altered the course of Disney history. In the end, Iger’s success didn’t spare him from the backlash he received after Ben Solo’s actor, Adam Driver, revealed his ultimate rejection of the film.
Centered around Ben Solo, who turned away from the Dark Side and joined forces with Rey to defeat Palpatine, leading to his apparent death at the end of the sequel trilogy’s most recent film, “The Hunt for Ben Solo” was to explore Ben Solo’s next steps after his redemption.
Driver introduced the idea of a fourth sequel movie that would take place after the events of “The Rise of Skywalker” to film director Steven Soderbergh, and Scott Z. Burns wrote the script.
Driver revealed in an interview with the Associated Press that Lucasfilm approved the idea and loved the script, only for Iger and Alan Bergman, co-chairman of Disney Entertainment, to veto it.
The pair said “no” as they didn’t believe it was possible for Ben Solo to be alive. This news devastated and united both the diehard sequel fans and fans who disliked the sequels, as they considered Ben Solo the most compelling character to come out of the sequels.
Fans found Iger’s rejection nonsensical as the franchise is no stranger to having characters return from their apparent deaths.
In the sequel trilogy’s most recent film, former Emperor Palpatine “somehow returned” from the dead after Darth Vader killed and betrayed him at the end of “Return of the Jedi”.
Palpatine’s former apprentice, Darth Maul, also returned in the animated “Clone Wars” series after being sliced in half by Obi-Wan Kenobi and then falling down a reactor shaft in “The Phantom Menace”.
The dedicated fanbase didn’t take this news lightly and quickly took action in support of the canceled film by starting a campaign titled, “Save The Hunt for Ben Solo”. Determined to get the film greenlit, campaign organizers flew banners over Disney’s Burbank headquarters and even purchased a Times Square billboard to share the message.
Although there’s no guarantee that “The Hunt for Ben Solo” will get greenlit following Iger’s retirement, fans will continue hoping to see the return of the beloved Ben Solo to their screens.
