Alderaan said:
The reason is probably because someone decided in a script meeting that it would be a novel idea to have one of the Han/Leia/Luke characters be a stormtrooper, and everyone else said “oh yeah that’s brilliant let’s do it”.
To be honest, that probably is exactly what happened.
Alderaan said:
It feels like the story was written and directed by ten different people, and all their different pet ideas got into the movie.
Considering all the various stakeholders at Disney, Bad Robot, toy manufacturers, marketeers, artist agents, etc etc involved, I’m sure this is a pretty accurate statement. I very much doubt JJ had free reign. I don’t think any director does these days unless they are low budget indie auteurs.