I don’t see why the marketing couldn’t be a trick to be subverted later when the name of the game with these episodes has been ultimate secrecy and surprise, Lucasfilm could pull the rug out from under people if they wanted. There are ancient interviews out there before the idea of 9 became so accepted where Star Wars could be up to 12 parts in total. With the standalone entries going to streaming I think this is one of the few moves left to genuinely surprise anyone when it comes to the episodes while keeping the ball up in the theatrical department. I also don’t buy even the RJ and DnD trilogies (which I predict will merge if they don’t fizzle out) as being so separated from the rest of the saga, it just doesn’t make sense and could go down in flames with audiences who don’t have the patience or the interest in trying to endear themselves to totally new sets of characters going on adventures in random disconnected time periods.

Anyway that’s my case, I agree that realistically they wouldn’t go there, maybe 0.005% chance, but I would sure consider it if I were in their position and bite the bullet on any ego indulgence and just say it’s the last hurrah before anyone notices the last minute scramble to figure out how to end this story. It’s bad enough we really haven’t had the proper time with the characters, hollow mysteries have substituted for story and it’s not a good look when you’re two acts deep and your main character’s defining arc is “Who am I? Why am I here?”. ST is really mostly Kylo if we’re talking about a set up narrative we can follow and respond to, the heroes have participated but those moments where we learn about them have been brushed to the side for later and now I don’t know how 3 hours will be enough to wrap up what has barely been established.