What the story group does not do, Hart said, is impose plot-point mandates on the filmmakers. Johnson told me he was surprised at how much leeway he was given to cook up the action of Episode VIII from scratch. “The pre-set was Episode VII, and that was kind of it,” he said. If anything, Johnson wanted more give-and-take with the Lucasfilm team, so he moved up to San Francisco for about six weeks during his writing process, taking an office two doors down from Hart’s and meeting with the full group twice a week. (x)
So I have a lot of thoughts about this and some worries, that maybe the story group didn’t have overarching plot guidelines for the new trilogy? Or they did but not enough?
I don’t buy it, I’m sure he had tons more freedom than he expected, but it’s very hard for me to believe they didn’t have at least ‘here’s where we want xyz to be in the end’.