There’s a good argument to be made that Rian is the best director who has ever worked on a Star Wars film. Not saying I would necessarily make that argument, but I think it’s possible. He’s also the only filmmaker other than Lucas who wrote and directed an SW film solo, which is an efficient combo.

He’s a very talented man, whether you like TLJ or not. He finished his film ahead of schedule without any headaches, which makes his SW production an outlier the likes of which Disney would obviously want to replicate. Surely they saw how the film was shaping up before it was done and liked it (most people did). Whether or not they could have predicted the fan backlash is irrelevant. The film was a critical and commercial success, and the fans that hated it did so mostly because of how it treated existing characters, something that wouldn’t be an issue in an unrelated trilogy. So hiring him for more was really a no-brainer.