I've been reviewing this supposed leak/rumor about Lando, Chewie, R2 and 3PO exploding with the Falcon. The oldest leaks only implied a fake-out death (which is further hinted at in some merch), so its possible that test audiences walked out of the theater before seeing the characters come back. Either that, or the idiots actually changed their fates in reshoots, or the older leaks were unaware that the fake-out deaths were actually for real. If true though, it would make sense. Luke is dead, Han is dead, Ackbar is dead, Leia is going to die in this one, and so is 3PO (sort of), so all that's left is Chewie, Lando and R2 (with 3PO's backup). Its clear they want these old characters out of the way so the new characters no longer have to live in their shadows,
which is something JJ, Kennedy and possibly Kasdan wanted from the get-go, so I wouldn't be shocked if its true, especially for 3PO and R2 since D-O and BB-8 are apparently the new droid duo despite neither of them being able to talk. And we can't have an alien replacement for Chewie since aliens aren't progressive and don't represent irl diversity.
Hell I wouldn't be surprised if in the scene when Palpatine summons his Death Star Destroyers from the ground, he tells Rey "Now witness the full power of this fully operational battle fleet!" (in true member berry fashion) and has his Death Star fleet fire planet-destroying lasers into space that are used to destroy all the familiar planets from the OT and PT (including Endor while Elder Wicket watches on as he dies an explosive death), except Tatooine since they need it for the final closing shot.
Its pretty much confirmed that planets are going to get nuked for this film anyway.
Might as well nuke the entire galaxy while you're at it...
She might have followed Lucas' lead on that. Lucas had repeatedly called the EU a parallel universe, and while he was perfectly fine with mining it for ideas, he never felt particularly beholden to it.
George says a lot of things faggot, most of them contradictory. One minute he'll say the EU abides by his universe, the next it doesn't and the next it does. George above all else considered them all part of the same world, he just didn't want to feel shackled to someone else's narrative when he wanted to do something and he always wanted others to abide by the rules he set (or even allow cameos and references to it be added in the special editions), unlike Kennedy who just went her own aimless way while killing the past. But despite these traits, George could still be flimsy or unreliable even when asked directly for input, like the continuity issues between the prequels and the Thrawn trilogy, where Zahn himself went up to George and asked to be given details on SW lore before planning out the book (hence Coruscant for one), yet it didn't really add up with the timeline the prequels put forth because George became so obsessed with every new little thing that came into his head, like child Anakin (or specifically wanting Jake Lloyd as Anakin) that he pretty much threw any potential for a solid movie and pre-existing ideas he himself made ages ago out the window thanks to having no tard wranglers or decent script writers, instead being surrounded by yesmen.
Regardless, even George's initial film outline for Disney was a solid enough follow up film idea (especially if he wasn't directly involved) that it borrowed enough good from the EU while still being original and not really retconning anything (except maybe the Vong which I wouldn't mind); back when it was just about new characters who learn from the old rather than take their place and fight a whole new interesting cult faction of "Jedi Killers" which implies all sorts of interesting concepts rather than just Empire 2.0, like maybe the implication of civilians sympathizing with the Jedi Killers out of fear of the power of the jedi or a potential religion/secular debate from civilians who grew up in the anti-religious imperial era of Palpatine.
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