In 2012, fans of Star Wars knew that Disney's plan for the series was to involve the original stars, Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and the late-great Carrie Fisher. But they had no idea to what extent the legendary actors would be involved. In fact, diehard Star Wars fans were still reeling from the $4.05 billion sale of Star Wars to the Disney Corporation. For many, this spelled out the end of Star Wars. At the very least, it destroyed the chance of George Lucas getting his way for the sequel series. Given that many Star Wars fans now prefer George Lucas' maligned prequels to Disney's sequels, perhaps this was the end of Star Wars? There's just no denying that some of the details included in the sequels just trash the original films. But the bleak future of Star Wars was just a worry in the minds of fans everywhere. There was still some hope. And that's why writer Dalton Ross at Entertainment Weekly posted a few ideas for how to make the sequels 'not suck'. Unfortunately, Disney didn't listen to EW's advice... and in some instances, they listened too much...
Using The Original Stars As Supporting Characters
The first entry in Dalton Ross' article about the Star Wars sequels in Entertainment Weekly details the need to bring back Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher... but only as supporting characters. His rationale was that making aging action stars the focus of a feature film is a bad idea. He cited Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull as an example of that. However, we all know that it really depends on how the script handles these again action stars that make the difference. After all, Hugh Jackman excelled as the aging action hero in Logan... But that's because the script actually took risks and had story reasons for involving an older hero in the action.
While Disney's Star Wars sequels did listen to EW with this piece of advice, they failed to find the right way of dealing with the original cast. This is with the possible exception of Harrison Ford's Han Solo who EW, funnily enough, predicted would die in 2015's The Force Awakens three prior to the film's release.
Be Inspired By The Novels For The New Plots
Disney did take some inspiration from some of the 150 expanded-universe novels for the sequel films. EW thought that the "Legacy of the Force" novels were the best source for Disney to mine ideas for the sequel films. While Disney did take the idea of Han and Leia's kid turning to The Dark Side, that's pretty much the extent of the similarities.
Disney almost took the moving "Legacy" story of the struggle between Han and Leia's kids, one who represented The Dark Side and the other The Light, but they managed to devolve it into the son of Han and Leia and the granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine... which just didn't hold the same dramatic weight... or make any sense, for that matter.
However, the animated series, as well as some of the upcoming Star Wars live-action series seem to be taking other storylines from the "Legacy" novels. Most notably, the inclusion of Grand Admiral Thrawn.
The Disney+ Star Wars series also seem to be taking another one of EW's suggestions, which is to explore the underworld of Star Wars. We're talking Boba Fett, bounty Hunters, and scoundrels alike. Bits and pieces of this were sloppily added into the sequel movies in the form of Benecio Del Toro and Keri Russell's characters. ...But that just didn't work for lack of character development and screentime.
The Techincal Element And The Cute Creatures
One thing that the Disney sequels got right was their use of practical effects and locations. EW correctly noted that the over-use of green/blue screens was noticeable and distracting in the prequel movies by George Lucas. Much like the original series, the sequel movies used a lot of existing locations that were just enhanced by special effects. The result was fantastic... It's just too bad that they didn't develop better stories to tell in these amazing locations and with the cool practical effects.
Finally, EW made a valid point about the use of the characters purely designed to sell toys and how they are distracting to older audience members and just downright annoying... We're looking at you Porgs... Yes, Disney, somewhat expectedly, didn't listen to this piece of advice and went all-in on creatures and robots that only seemed to be in the movies to sell toys... ahem... ahem... BB8. This was at the detriment of established creature/robot-characters such as R2D2, C-3PO, and even Yoda.
Ultimately, the Disney sequels really seemed to be about making money. It's showbusiness, so there's always going to be 'business... But they seem to forget about creating a meaningful show. At the very least, they could've listened to Entertainment Weekly and stood a chance at making stronger motion pictures.