Star Wars: The Last Jedi was a divisive movie, and in a blatant attempt at course correction, The Rise of Skywalker did everything from sidelining Rose Tico to revealing Rey as Emperor Palpatine's daughter, and attempting to redeem Luke Skywalker. In trying to please everyone, the Skywalker Saga finale actually ended up alienating more fans, and is widely considered a major disappointment.
While the early Star Wars movies were made without a plan in place, that approach really didn't work with these sequels, and the trilogy ultimately boiled down to the conflicting visions of two filmmakers.
In a recent interview, Rian Johnson revealed that no one at Lucasfilm mentioned plans to kill Ben Solo in the final chapter (remember, he was supposed to become a full-blown villain in Colin Trevorrow's Duel of the Fates). The filmmaker also mentioned that he wanted to leave the door open to the story going any number of places when there was a "hand off" between Episode VIII and IX.
At this point, the sequels are... what they are. Things are definitely looking up for the Star Wars franchise, though, with the stories playing out on television going over much better with fans.
Check out a recap of Johnson's comments below:
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