Eh, they could do what Star Trek did with The Next Generation: basically a “soft reboot” that doesn’t reboot the whole continuity, but focuses on new characters within the same universe. It’s not necessarily true that sequels have to depend fully on the movies that came before them, and I think Star Trek is one of the best examples of this.
It’s not that easy, Star Trek has a built in premise of multiple crews exploring space, Star Wars is a character drama, you can’t just discover a new alien race and call it a day. Plus these are sequels not spinoffs, they should be interconnected beyond the setting or what’s the drive?