You know what might have worked, if they wanted to pick up that story but retain the original (now older) cast? Give it a framing story, of the oldsters telling the story of the rebuilding of the Republic to their young children or grandchildren. Spend maybe five minutes on each end with the old cast, and then have the rest of the movie be set in that time right after Return of the Jedi.
Or it might not have worked, especially since the others didn’t use this sort of framing story. Hard to tell.
As I think I’ve said before, what Star Wars needs is to broaden the playbook and experiment with different styles and genres to expand the universe so we’re not invested in just one small group. The stakes can be small and still tell a compelling story.
Hell, let Jarmusch make a Star Wars movie for $40 million and he’ll most likely knock it out of the park.
I don’t think recasting the original trilogy characters with younger actors would have been the right path (see: Solo). I really liked the idea of having the older cast members move in to the role of mentors. The problem was, instead of showing how the galaxy was changed as a result of the previous generation’s efforts, they wanted to tell exactly the same story again. It robs almost all of the achievement from the original cast, and makes the achievements of the new cast seem cheap, because there’s no reason to think all this won’t just happen again in another thirty years.
Set the new trilogy in a fledgling Republic still struggling with the aftermath of the Empire. Luke can still be have run off to hermit after his nephew turned evil, but let him leave behind a new Jedi Order that’s struggling to live up to the legends of the Old Republic. Have Leia be a powerful senator whose ability to act against the rising threat of the new Empire is limited by political concerns. Have the story exist in the world left behind by the original trilogy, instead of just knocking everything down so the new cast has to rebuild it again.
Also, just make Rey a fucking Skywalker. Have her and Kylo be brother and sister, and make this known from the first scene of the first movie. I liked that TLJ tried to get her away from the whole Skywalker dynasty by making her a “nobody,” but it also couldn’t really figure out what the relationship between Rey and Kylo was supposed to be. Making them siblings from the beginning gives them a clear relationship, and Kylo’s fall to the Dark Side gives the relationship some drama. I thought Ridley and Driver had really good screen chemistry, but narratively, it was always muddled why these characters cared about each other at all, even as enemies.