I'm trying to think of possibilities of how JJ can save this dumpster fire with Ep. 9 but nothing much comes to mind.
Maybe they can bring Luke back and make him totally wreck some shit but that seems highly unlikely.
Maybe they can give us a satisfying conclusion to Poe's arc but honestly I have lost interest in all these new characters except Kylo. I dont even know why Finn is in the trilogy at all. It just seems too late to fix all that has been broken.
I feel like the only way they could save it now is to write an Episode 9 that kicks the good guys asses and leaves Kylo Ren looking like an unstoppable villain. Then have an Episode 10 to round off the entire Saga and leave it at that.
Currently you have your main villain on 2 embarrassing losses and going into a 3rd movie it really needs to end on another loss. I don't see how in 2 to 3 hours they are going to build Kylo back up, challenge Rey and then also have a satisfying ending.
In hindsight I would just say they should have left it at Episode 6. Nobody NEEDS to know what happened to Han and Leia and Luke after the party on Endor. Who cares? They all lived happily ever after now move on.
To do a new trilogy they really needed to do a few things:
Plan the entire 3 movies out in advance.
Film all 3 movies at the same time.
Release one movie per year.
In terms of story I think a trilogy that basically boils down to "good vs evil" needs to do certain things like picking one of these:
Evil wins parts 1 & 2 but good wins overall in the final part.
Good wins part 1, Evil comes back and wins part 2, Good takes the 2-1 victory in part 3.
Evil wins part 1, good wins part 2 BUT it's costly and an even bigger battle is built up for part 3. Good wins in the end.
They abandoned this for some reason and so you ended up with the bad guys being humiliated in both parts one and two meaning that they are not legit bad guys.
FFS even 1990s and early 2000s era WWF understood this logic pretty well. You bring in a seemingly unstoppable heel who batters all of the babyfaces and races to the top spot. Then you build up a redemption arc for your main babyface that involves them taking several beatings until they overcome all the odds on the big stage. Easy.
It connects with audiences and everyone goes away happy.
If you REALLY must mix it up then you have some kind of three-way dance where you have 2 protagonists and a "big bad" evil. So your middle part of the trilogy can pit your 2 good guys against each other with them finally settling their differences to face Big Bad in the final third.
There are fundamental characteristics of Star Wars that can be added to these basic rules to put a uniquely Star Wars spin on the basics.
Things like:
The Force as a kind of "fate" or "destiny" mechanism.
The idea that people can flip or turn from Dark Side to Light Side and/or vice versa.
Lightsaber battles and the usual Star Wars imagery.
In the first movie JJ set a lot of these things up pretty well. Sure the movie was a retread of A New Hope to some extent but by the end of it we had multiple possibilities for the future 2 movies.
The Last Jedi is when things start to go bad. It just seems like a "standalone" episode that does nothing to really forward the story in any meaningful way.
When we end Episode 8, Kylo is still evil and has been beaten again. Rey is still good and remains basically unchallened. Finn is the same guy, Poe is the same guy. Snoke is dead. Hux is the same. Luke, Leia and Han have more or less bowed out of the series.
On top of not moving the story forward Episode 8 threw out all of the potential built up from Episode 7 to do it's own thing.
Even the final shot with the kid and the broom is more of a "The End" that a "To be continued...". That's just an insanely bad move, in my opinion.
To save this shitshow? I would say Episode 9 needs to:
Introduce a new "Big Bad" that has some kind of power to negate The Force.
Explore Rey's background.
Force Rey to take a couple of serious losses in the movie.
Look at Rey's specific relationship with The Force.
Consider the possibility that Rey could turn to the Dark Side.
Tie off any character connections to the original trilogy so that Han, Leia or Luke are never mentioned or seen on screen again.
Do not bring in any more of the characters from the old trilogies.
Have Finn become completely disillusioned with war, possibly by having Rose killed off in an early battle scene.
Allow Poe to come round to Finns way of thinking and have them go off to do their own thing, possibly freeing stormtroppers or something like that.
Have some kind of ending to C3PO and R2D2's character arcs, some kind of "happily ever after" for those 2 seems right.
Explore who Snoke was and what he was teaching Kylo and how it relates to new Big Bad.
Introduce the Knights of Ren into the story, have some on them conflicted between Light and Dark.
Give Kylo a major win over the good guys at the beginning of the movie.
Give Kylo and even bigger win at the end of the movie.
THEN have an Episode 10 that was written at the same time as this theoretical Episode 9 and use it to tie off the entire Star Wars Saga in a satisfying "good wins, and they all lived happily ever after" kind of way.
I have a bad feeling that Episode 9 is going to be just OK but is going to be absolutely destroyed by critics. They've already set up this idea that Rian Johnsons Star Wars is the greatest Star Wars and I feel like whatever JJ comes up with will be derided as too safe or predictable.
I'll just be glad to watch Episode 9 and then be done with Star Wars to be honest.
The "Star Wars Story" movies are always going to be hit and miss, mostly miss.
The TV shows etc will make loads of money which will mean loads of seasons which will mean ultimately they will become shite.