It was, according to Whitta, even a couple degrees sillier than that: They stopped themselves from writing the ending they thought it needed in the beginning simply because they assumed "Disney" would come down on it, so why waste the time.
It wasn't until they kept getting dissatisfied with the alternatives they were coming up with, that they realized they should try to pitch their original idea to Lucasfilm. At which point Lucasfilm was like (shrug) "Kill them all if that's what this story needs to work."
At which point they were like "Oh. Oh, we could have just started here the whole time.
I feel this is partially related to a point that a lot of casual observers
really underestimate what is tolerable and acceptable within Star Wars in terms of storytelling devices.
Like, honestly, what would especially have blocked killing off a cast introduced for a one-off film in a franchise that
just killed off one of the central pillars? Where one of the most iconic scenes is a literal death montage? That had a man
immolated onscreen?
If there are any lines that one may not be able to cross with this franchise, they are either likely to be thematic in nature - and even that, probably a case by case - or in terms of continuity, since well, that's part of why the LSG exists. But even then, it's become quite apparent their role is more to safeguard what's
already established, while if a creator is venturing into uncharted territories, they will stand back and let people do their jobs. Hell, even
help if those creators come back to them and ask 'is there anything already established that fits this idea we wanna go with?', which is how Forest Whitaker turns into Saw Gerrara.
