Star Wars was always going to be a 9 part series. These new movies are not out of the blue. They were planned by Lucas over 30 years ago.
When Disney bought the rights to Star Wars they also bought the treatments George Lucas laid out going forward.
I know this; I actually read the (very turgid) books a long time ago when I wanted to see what all of the fuss about Star Wars actually was about. However, to be perfectly honest, I don't think there is enough of narrative interest to justify nine books, let alone nine movies. The tales are extraordinarily threadbare, and badly written, hence the need to plump them up with special effects and bombast.
The original trilogy told the story that was interesting, and had epic undertones, along with a strong narrative arc, which was why the original movies concentrated on these, discreetly over-looking the fact that the story was told somewhat out of sequence.
Another single movie (and not three) - if properly done - could easily have told the story of Anakin's life's journey - the one leading to his moral collapse and physical transformation. (Godfather II charted the disintegration of Michael Corleone's moral universe exceptionally well).
My concern with this is that I seriously doubt that there is enough basic narrative material - in other words, enough story, and the best movies are stories which are well told, where props, and special effects, (and dare one say it, CGI) support the story, rather than the other way around, - to carry three movies.
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