I kind of hoped there'd be some discussion of this here, but I'll toss it out there - the rumour making the rounds that the reason there's so much revision/killing the past in the Sequel Trilogy was that Lucas retained a percentage on every reference to the originals/prequels, & this was Disney trying to weasel out of the old & soft reboot their way out of royalties.

Which hasn't gone very well, so they're scrambling to save the franchise, forced ... sorry ... to bring back more OT elements.

As di$appointing as this would be, honestly I just love a good conspiracy.

Any thoughts, fellow falconites?

I'm not sure that Rogue One or Solo would have been made if this is the case.

I think Disney is simply trying to do their own modern thing thing their own way. It just isn't working as well as hoped.

Thanks for chiming in E_Chu. I guess my counter to Rogue One/Solo is - Kenobi got canned. Mandalorian isn't The Boba Fett Show. There is some appreciable distancing happening, if you're inclined to see it that way.

Maybe I'm watching too many youtubers talking merchandising schenanigans. Seems so plausible though, & sadly ironic that our modern mythology may be being written from the perspective of that bottom line. So far from 1977 & the desire to tell a compelling story, no matter what.

Lucas wanted to be a millionaire just as much or more than he wanted to tell stories.

You kinda have to be a millionaire in order to be independent from the studio control. As for the rumors, I doubt Disney would have allowed it. It could be a false leak to explain their creative failures with the sequels (look, it's all Gl's fault, everyone knows how greedy he can be).