Since you’re all on the subject of the massive PR campaign to assure fans that TFA was nothing like the prequels, I also remember how the crew was constantly telling everyone about the return to real sets and practical effects, and then a few months after the theatrical release of TFA, ILM released a video on YouTube revealing they employed waaay more CGI than originally thought. I also remember how J.J. Abrams wouldn’t shut up about how they were shooting on film, going so far as to use the exact same type of film stock used for the first SW movie, which is a moot point when I looked up and discovered the movie was processed through digital intermediates, which is IMO cheating. What’s the fucking point of going through all the trouble of using this specific type of film stock if you’re using DIs instead of revealing the film photochemically?
Also, Simon Pegg strikes me as a major hypocrite, openly shitting on the prequels all these years only to happily appear in the derivative piece of work that is TFA.
I sometimes feel selling Lucasfilm to Disney was a mistake. Lucasfilm should have been acquired by WarnerMedia (then Time Warner) or Universal Pictures, because I find the franchise is becoming increasingly tame under Disney’s ownership (Rogue One and TLJ being the only notable exceptions). Take The Clone Wars for instance, you frequently saw characters being stabbed through the torso by lightsabers, fast forward to Star Wars Rebels and most character deaths would immediately cut to a reaction shot.
As JokerRulez has brilliantly pointed out, Disney is currently milking the OT. This is made evident by the fact that so far all of the Disney-era SW expanded material has focused on every little detail of the OT, from the many hours Leia spent braiding her hair between missions to the whatever Luke did in his spare time in the days after the Battle of Yavin.
Right now, the only thing I’m really looking forward to regarding Star Wars is Rian Johnson’s SW Trilogy, after all Johnson has earned my full trust with TLJ. I wish I could say I’m looking forward to The Mandalorian, but I don’t have Disney+.