Why would Disney make such strange decisions with this franchise?


I suspect it's related to one of three things:
Number one IP. Disney wanted to own the intellectual property related to Star Wars. This means disposing of the existing IP and replacing it with their own. JJ Abrams has a history of doing things like this if you look at Star Trek.
Number two avoiding payments to George Lucas. This is sort of related to the first point. George may have had a deal where Disney had to pay him royalties if they make use of original characters. Disney may have decided to develop their own characters to avoid making additional payments to Lucas.
Number three inability to execute. Sometimes the obvious answer is the simplest. Kathleen Kennedy and Lucasfilm have no idea what they're doing.

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It’s number three.

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Disney paid Lucas 4 billion about 5 years ago for total rights, he has nothing to do with Star Wars anymore.

Lucas stated that sometimes he regrets the decision, he likened it to selling a son to slavers.

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They paid him half in stocks too. George gets paid for life no matter what.

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Yeah but he has no control or power over any decisions that Disney makes.

Disney isn't stupid, that don't pay someone that much money and let him keep power.

He could make a stink and sell his shares, but there is not much sympathy for billionaires these days.

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The first two are definitely true, the original characters and ships were still owned by GL.

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There trying to hard to please the fsns in my view

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