Perhaps one of you very creative fans could help me. I’m nearing completion of my rough cut of a more radical edit that removes Palpatine entirely. I feel that having Palps survive RotJ is on the worst things you can do in Star Wars. Kylo is searching for a lost Imperial/Sith fleet. The duel on the Death Star remains now occurs simultaneously with the fleet battle at Exegol.
The two main problems are 1) Finn and Poe basically abandon Rey on Kef Bir once she takes the skimmer in order to get them back to Ajan Kloss for the Exegol battle. 2) Rey is still looking for the wayfinder among the DS ruins after the fleet has already made it to Exegol. If anyone has any creative fixes, I’d love to hear them. Otherwise I think this version is working well, although it’s cut down to about ninety minutes.
Maybe you could cut Hux’s death (or save it for later), and have him be the one to send the signal that leads the Resistance to Exegol. You could probably just do this by changing some dialogue.
As for having Poe and Finn abandon Rey, here’s my idea, though I’m not sure if it’s possible: Have the heroes go straight from Kijimi to Kef-Bir. Then as Rey sneaks off to find the wayfinder, the Star Destroyer shows up and Finn (not Rey) is the one who senses Chewie’s alive and decides to go rescue him.