Having Hux be an acolyte of Sidious would’ve done wonders to repair his joke image from TLJ.
Pryde was a useless character; Hux could’ve fit his role fine. Or even have Phasma return again in either role as Sidious’ mole or Rebels’ mole, since she’s a selfish backstabber already.
Maybe an edit could be done someday of erasing Pryde and just making it all Hux.
I think Hux was the spy and killed off so quickly because of the negative feedback from TLJ. I wish they would have developed it more or just had him take the role Pryde had in the film. The spy subplot is just so rushed and empty in the theatrical film.
TLJ Hux began with a “yo mama” joke and then was slapped around like a ragdoll.
His character was deliberately reduced to a Jar Jar joke and there was no coming back from that.
Imagine if Empire started with Vader comically slipping and falling and then Han waves “LATER, YA BIG DORK!”
That would’ve killed the gravitas of the character from that point forward and probably killed ROTJ.
Hence “negative feedback”. I think there was room to come back from that, especially if you look at Yoda’s portrayal in ESB. Point is, that plot line was thin in TRoS, and could have been fleshed out more or they could’ve dropped that subplot and given Hux the role Pryde filled in the final film.
Another solution would be to move the spy subplot up into the other films, which would be difficult with Finn being incapacitated between TFA/TLJ and his style change in TRoS, and introduce Pryde a film earlier. This would also help validate Holdo’s secrecy, since she did not know how the First Order caught up with the fleet.
(This is the radical redux thread, right?)