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Star Wars superfandom breaks into two camps, imo:
The first group demands adherence to a certain, often unwritten, interpretation of the classic trilogy. Change is unwanted and unwelcome, like those comic book fans who railed against the black uniforms of the X-Men. The beloved characters must remain the same over the years. Traditional alien races should be prominently featured. Stories should be pulled from existing works. It's poetry, and it should rhyme.
Even when new depictions follow the existing material in justifiable and logical ways, if it violates a sort of communal headcanon, it's unacceptable. As one example, people freak out about Space Leia and decry it as an affront to Star Wars fans everywhere. When Johnson points out that Leia's Force abilities are merely the fulfillment of what Luke told her in RotJ ("in time you'll learn to use it as I have"), it doesn't matter because it conflicts with the existing view of Leia when we last saw her.
This group has little interest in Star Wars tales that don't include a Skywalker or tie directly to the OT in some way.
The second group loves the original material but views the new as interesting and exciting. Likes seeing new twists on old ideas and growing concepts to fit a modern telling. Many in this group were not raised during the original run of the OT and identify more broadly with a larger Star Wars universe that includes things other than the three classic films.
This is the group who is looking forward to Episode IX, but also (and maybe more so) in taking the franchise into new eras and far-flung parts of the galaxy. It thinks that closing the book on the Skywalkers is good for the franchise and that the best may yet lie ahead. Star Wars is about more than the OT and can grow beyond it.
I guess I fall into your second group. I was 9 when Star Wars first came out, so I grew up on the OT. I spent a lot of years imagining what episodes 1 - 3 might look like, and in some cases, the prequels came pretty close to what I imagined. Other than Timothy Zahn's books (Heir to the Empire, etc), I never really gave much thought to any sequel trilogies largely because I considered Star Wars (the arc started in the OT) to be the story of Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, which was told rather well in 6 films and ended with his death in Return of the Jedi.
When Revenge of the Sith came out, I was pretty much done with Star Wars. I never expected to see another new Star Wars movie. But when Lucas sold the rights to Disney and Disney announced Episode VII, I was on board. The Force Awakens was a fun movie, and set up what appeared to be a good story that tied in Darth Vader through his grandson, but the movie itself was too safe. While watching it the first time, I remember thinking, well, Rey is in the Obi-Wan role right here, slinking around unnoticed through an [Imperial] outpost just as Kenobi did on the first Death Star. We even had another X-Wing trench run. Still, I enjoyed the movie pretty well, better than Episodes 1 - 2 in fact, and had all kinds of expectations for Episode XIII.
Episode XIII comes along, and Rian Johnson threw all of my expectations out the window. Okay, he can do whatever he wishes as he is the director, I am simply a fan with no role at all in the making of the movie. That does not mean, however, that I cannot voice my disappointment over what he did with The Last Jedi. There were some really good moments, sure, but the bad in that movie really outweighed by far all of the good. And I never could get over this thought - at no time in the OT did I ever really feel like Luke Skywalker was this bad ass who was going to walk into the second Death Star and wreck shop. He was an untested Jedi in training who found a way to survive his first encounter with Darth Vader (Vader was not going to kill him, but Luke didn't know that). There was an unknown amount of time passing during his training on Dagobah, and then months passed between the end of Empire and the beginning of Jedi. Yet here we have Rey in The Force Awakens, learning that she has Jedi abilities but never having had any training (as far as we know), and The Last Jedi opens literally seconds after The Force Awakens ends, and what, a day or two passes during her "training" with Luke, and now she's able to march into Snoke's lair like a bad ass?
The two spin off movies have been fantastic. I loved Rogue One to the tune of ranking it my third favorite Star Wars movie (behind Empire and A New Hope). Solo was a whole lot of fun, and I thought the actors did a great job with established roles (particularly Lando). The pansexual thing was nothing but a bunch of garbage. Nothing in the Solo movie would have even made he have a question about Lando's sexual preferences had it not been for the commentaries on the topic prior to its release. It has already been established that some people in the Star Wars universe have formed good relationships with their droids, perhaps not on a sexual basis, but look at Luke and R2. Why would it be unusual that Lando cares for his droid (which as a character I found a bit annoying but nothing more)?
Back to Johnson. I understand that Disney has given him an entire trilogy. I rank The Last Jedi as my least favorite Star Wars movie, but nevertheless I'll go into his trilogy with an open mind. Maybe he'll actually make a movie (or series) that I enjoy when he's not fettered with expectations set by the previous movie and is therefore free to take his story wherever he wishes.
Kathleen Kennedy. I don't know what to make of her. She has been a producer on many of my favorite movies. But did I read something somewhere that stated that the entire Star Wars story group is comprised of women? If so, I guess it's not surprising that we must then see subtle or not so subtle infusions of gender stuff in these movies. Not sure why that needs to be a thing. Leia was a strong female character right from the get-go. Admiral Holdo was a mostly worthless character; Rose was the worst character ever put into a Star Wars movie. We don't need Earthly politics in Star Wars movies; these movies exist in a galaxy far, far away? It seems reasonable to assume there would not be some XLBGQwhatevertheF** lobby in that galaxy. I don't know that she should be fired from her current position, but I do wish that she would remove the political crap from these movies.
I am a fan of Star Wars. I love the OT and the PT. I love the spin offs. I am lukewarm on the ST. I will always go see Star Wars movies, but I have to wonder, if TLJ is any indication, will I ever get another Star Wars movie that blows me away?
