I think it would be a good idea to set up in the crawl or anywhere that Starkiller base is built on Jeddah or however you spell it, that’s where the kyber is, it’s powered by the planet not a stupid star. And it would link to Rouge one in a good way.
Or you could, you know leave it as is where it is heavily (and I mean heavily) implied to be Ilum, the planet where Jedi would go to get lightsaber crystals in the days of the Republic, as featured in TCW… I don’t see a need to link up to Rogue One anyway. This isn’t the MCU. The spinoffs aren’t setting up anything; they’re their own stories. That’s why I was baffled by people thinking Vader’s castle would show up in the ST.
Anyway, here’s the state of the uninspired planets and what could be done to remedy them (largely taken from my previous statements but centralized in one post):
Jakku: Honestly, just make this Tatooine for poetry’s sake. Just add a second sun to some scenes and voila. In fact, you don’t even need to go that far, as you could argue the second sun only shows up on certain days. Alternatively, if you want to keep the planet distinct, cacti would help.
Takodana: Oh my this one is so generic. We’ve had Yavin, Endor, and Naboo, we do not need another forest planet. While Endor is pretty distinct the other three are very similar, so I recommend making Takodana either Yavin or Naboo. I’m leaning towards Naboo, as it’s been shown to be widely inhabited, and has an abundance of water. If one were to make it distinct, the trees need to remain green due to Rey’s line, and I don’t see what else you could do with it. If anything, you should change the leaf color of Yavin, but editing the OT that way would be seen as sacrilege by most.
D’Qar: This one I think we can creative with. Add mountains to the few wide shots and suddenly you have Lothal.
Pasaana: Yet another desert. Since the film isn’t out yet, we can’t say for sure how to approach it, but I recommend making it a distinct planet from Tatooine, unless you like the idea of every film but one having Tatooine in it. Once again, cacti could be used.
And can I just say congrats to TLJ for not making this list.