Disney learned a major lesson, they suck at making anything other than Disney movies, that's why they buy companies with "proven products" like Pixar, Marvel etc and let them do what they do best.
In that optic they bought Lucasfilm, a company that was designed to entirely orbit one single person, George Lucas himself.
What seems to have happened is that Lucasfilm has a proven producer at the helm, but not necessarily another George Lucas. She has been parceling out the creative side of things and pretty much runs the company, but in a system where everyone answers to the boss, this hands-off approach means that ideas that may not mesh with what Star Wars represents end up being decided by the "creatives for hire" like Abrams and Reynolds.
Abrams has been said to be closest to a director with Lucas' sensitivities, but he's also got his own shtick, the infamous "mystery box" something he is very eager to set up, but loathe to reveal, usually leaving it up to others to work out.
Lucasfilm tried to hedge their bet by making a movie that would be undeniably part of the original trilogy rather than be another controversial prequel-style story.
They essentially rebooted the OT and remade the first film. A hybrid designed to appeal to audiences, but kinda backfired. The clear remake and the vague promises of amazing reveals created both skepticism and overwrought anticipation. Rey was going to be a bomb shell the size of Vader's reveal in ESB. We would discover where Snoke came from.
Not that Abrams had a clue, he said himself he had no real idea who Rey or Snoke were, leaving it up Reynolds.
Subversion is a tradition in Star Wars, Obi-Wan explicitly told Luke Vader killed his dad, but Vader revealed him the truth. Luke went out to seek a great Jedi Warrior, he found a tiny green gnome …
Technically no matter if Rey was a secret Skywalker, or a Kenobi or even the reincarnation of Annakin Skywalker to finish that arc, expectations would never be met.
Reynolds did an interesting thing he returned the Force to the people. The original 70's pseudo Eastern mystique had given way to a 90's genetic aristocracy. If you wanted to make a ripple, you better had exceptional parents …
In making Ray a nobody he returned the force to the fans, when Luke was still a farm boy from nowhere who accomplishes great things, he was the perfect mirror to the audience, but once Lucas became obsessed with politics and giving Vader his great arc before anything else he took away the Force from the viewer, no longer could a talented amateur hope to accomplish something, the old school Jedi fought with mechanical precision almost faster than thought, a carefully rehearsed dance without any sense of tension.
Reynold's ideas are quite good, they are the kind of fresh new ideas we need for Star Wars to continue, but fan reaction, clinging to tired old story tropes of extraordinary destinies over vicarious participation. It didn't help that Rey was a girl right in the middle of a muddied discussion I shall not go into.
I guess they recalled Abrams to fix the problems, he'll probably retcon Rey into being a Kenobi or somesuch, and Snoke will have been revealed to be posessed by the Force Ghost of Palpatine who survived the destruction of the Death Star and secretly runs everything from its ruins and since we have cloning technology I wouldn't be surprised if we had a whole army of Skywalkers in the future.
Lucasfilm needs a few people to act as general managers of the property, Kennedy is a great producer, but she's not George Lucas, she needs a team of people who will at least have a clear vision on what works and what doesn't in Star Wars universe. If not, Disney will have bought a mere brand name without any soul or inherent value.
shows no self-restraint and paints models he doesn't even need yet!
