I don’t think there needs to be a ton of new lines setting up characters/plot points in TLJ. This might be a better convo for the General edit ideas thread instead of here, but I personally think the Max union dispute business, for example, should be cut from TLJ, and make it so she is just fighting the First Order on a different front. She goes on and on about how they needed to fight the First Order in TFA, but then she just settling a union dispute in the next movie? I think it makes a lot more sense if she is just busy fighting the First Order somewhere else. It seems like a part of the reason no one is helping the Resistance is because their allies have either surrendered or are already busy repelling the First Order blitzkrieg on other fronts. So I think the less we set up certain things the more modular this edit can be with other edits. It just depends.
I really like the idea of changing Maz’ dialogue to imply it relates to another front. I’m not thinking this through fully here (it’s early), but are there any other moments in the trilogy that this could be used to enhance? I’m thinking things like Jannah’s appearance in movie 3, the uprisings encouraged by Finn/Luke/Lando, or similar?