Everything You Think is Important, Is Not Important - HelloGreedo
A bit harsh maybe, but HelloGreedo does make some interesting points in this video. Many fans do focus a a bit too much on what they think the upcoming films should be about, or what they think a character from the old films should be like after thirty years of life-experience.
Johnson also explained in an EW interview (Source) why he didn’t elaborate on Snoke;
Johnson explains why he didn’t go into Snoke’s back-story, comparing it to our introduction to Palpatine in Return of the Jedi. We didn’t know where he came from. We just knew he was pure evil, and that was enough. Perhaps not knowing where Snoke went to high school keeps that shrouded sense of mystery we needed. Plus, as Johnson points out, it would have stopped the movie in its tracks, which he didn’t want to do.
“It would have stopped any of these scenes dead cold if he had stopped and given a 30-second speech about how he’s Darth Plagueis. It doesn’t matter to Rey. If he had done that, Rey would have blinked and said, ‘Who?’ And the scene would have gone on.”
Before moving on himself, Johnson quickly added, “And I’m not saying he’s Darth Plagueis!”
It’s easy to forget retroactively that we knew very little about most backstories prior to the PT and the EU. Heck, even a lot of names, incl. Palpatine, were never actually spoken in the films.
Interesting short analysis of TLJ:
Not too sure about every point he makes, but it’s the first video I’ve come across so far that simply tries to analyse Johnson’s intentions with the film.