Yeah, I don’t think anything “changed their mind” - I think they had ideas for what they wanted to do when they first bought the company, and then those ideas ran their course, and then they decided to get ready for the 50th Anniversary. The fact we didn’t even know they were doing this for YEARS before it accidentally leaked out, pretty strongly suggests they think about stuff like this WAY in advance, on schedules it doesn’t occur to us they’re even working on.
Then why was JJ Abrams told it was impossible and given a vague non-answer that he didn’t understand? lol