Speaking to Rolling Stone, Johnson addressed the notion that he and J.J. Abrams—who made the first and third films in the sequel trilogy, The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker —didn’t communicate enough about their 2015 and 2017 Star Wars films, leading to a disjointed feeling between the two.

Rian Johnson has finally set the record straight on how much he and J.J. Abrams spoke in between "The Force Awakens" and "The Last Jedi"

While J.J. Abrams was seemingly thinking about mirroring a Darth Vader/Emperor Palpatine dynamic for Kylo Ren and Supreme Leader Snoke, Johnson felt it was more dramatic to do something fresh and different with the characters instead of just echoing what audiences have already seen.