I have a hard time rating TROS. I had read the leaks partly because I didn't believe they were true, so watching it I was like 'oh, wow, it's true' five minutes in and couldn't take things seriously enough to analyse properly.
I am suspicious of everything I hear about what happened on any set ever since that 'Saved in the Edit' video (and to an extent Justice League). We rarely get told the full story. It's very difficult to actually figure out who is responsible for what on a production this big, it's kind of how corporate structures work.Even if there was a plan, it would have gotten wrecked when Carrie died. But my tentative take is something like this.
JJ never planned to come back, he wanted to leave things open for whoever was next, which is a good thing in some ways. But TFA didn't do some necessary worldbuilding, leaving TLJ with very difficult problems to solve. TLJ tried to address these, but couldn't quite manage it, and left some new problems for 9 of its own.
Some media is trying to spin this as a JJ v Rian thing, but it's more complicated than that.
Carrie died, CT's script didn't work out, and JJ came in late and had to try to salvage things, but he had a lot of work to do and not enough time to do it, because he never expected to come back for 9, so ended up with a mad scramble to get it over the line in time for the due date.
Regardless, I hope Daisy doesn't get in trouble for this. Anyone see that John Boyega interview in GQ?