1: Build a massive salt-powered device for world conquest.
2: Announce that Uwe Boll will be directing the sequel trilogy.
3: Profit. No space required.
Okay more seriously.
The first step is determining what can be legally done via rights. I suspect at least some characters are tied up via the years of various publishers making Star Wars media and having a piece of the copyright. Imma just assume I have them all though for this thought exercise.
Second step is visuals. The rules will be: Only 1 X-Wing (Lukes). The Millennium Falcon stays. We can keep a few of the iconic capital ships like the Nebulon-B Frigate, a Star Destroyer or 2, and Mon Cal Cruiser. Everything else is original new designs, though I'm not afraid of drawing inspiration from other parts of Star Wars. The important fighters, "main character" ships, and everything that isn't basically owned by a legacy character will be new, iconic designs to the new movies, much as we saw new iconic ships in the prequels. Luke, Han, Ackbar, and the like get to bring their ships along because those are a part of their character. Leia would get something new, though, because a ship isn't a part of who she is.
Decide on our Iconic Planets at this stage. My general thoughts:
Desert planet is overdone though I'll admit I loved the visual of the crashed Star Destroyer in The Force Awakens. Instead come up with some original visuals. Desert planet can be visited but frankly we've already hit
Ocean planet doesn't offer enough options visually. I don't think it would rip off Kamino or that it's overdone, I just think it'd take too much of a stretcher to come up with action scenes that are all water based. So while a water planet visit might happen, it won't be a major world.
Forest planet was done in one movie so there's room for another, especially if we can get something different from conifers. Look into visiting somewhere like Tennessee during the fall when the leaves are striking reds and golds to get good visuals.
Mushroom planet hasn't been done much. I'm thinking straight up mold-forest planet with psychadelic glowing 'shrooms everywhere. Provided an effort at avoiding the Mushroom Kingdom is made, the mold forest can provide an exciting, 3D environment with heroes having fights amidst giant mushrooms, action scenes jumping off colossal fungus, and mushrooms that explode because of course they do.
The vertical city could be another good iconic location. Something where the entire civilization is build into the side of a Grand Canyon sized pit with heroic speeder chases and chase scenes both across the cliff faces and into massive tunnels dug into the wall. Throwaway line to explain why, perhaps the planet has horrific storms so the canyons provide civilization with shelter.
Corrupt Casino world can stay. It's a good concept even if it was wasn't used to it's full potential before.
Crystal planet's another potential winner. Christophsis was a bit overused in the Clone Wars cartoon, mostly due (I think) to the anachronic order of the episodes making it seem like they attacked Christophsis about 627 times. However visually it's good and a callback to the Clone Wars wouldn't hurt.
Next is our Iconic characters.
Now honestly I don't think the characters in the sequels were bad. I think the biggest flaw of both the prequels and the sequels was that they lacked Han Solo. I don't mean him literally of course, but rather there's no lovable rogue as a main character in either one. Hondo actually managed to be this in Rebels though he was always a bit too malevolent, he was more magnificent than lovable.
Daisy Ridley did a good job with what she was given but she's entirely the wrong actress for the character she played. Rey should be lowbrow, dirty, unkempt, an almost-literally dirt poor scavenger. Daisy Ridley is clean, precise, mannered, and cultured. Recast her as our rogue. No really, she's the scoundrel. She's now Rey Solo, daughter of Leia and Han solo. She was born without the slightest trace of force potential to the bitter disappointment of her uncle, mother, and the Republic that's counting on as many Jedi as it can get to keep the peace.
Rey was raised with a silver spoon in her mouth but estranged from her mother over being constantly compared to her brother Ben who is a force prodigy. She eventually broke with the family and became a bounty hunter, which she's terrible at. She's constantly insisting that she looks out only for number one while unable to resist helping the downtrodden. Think Rick from Casablanca with boobs and a gunship instead of a casino. Cultured, urbane, sophisticated, and insists sticks out her neck for nobody though it's remarkable how when the chips are down, she always happens to choose to shoot the Nazis/fascists even when they'd pay more.
Her father is now a retired general and successful shipping magnate who constantly complains that he should never have gotten more than one ship. He doesn't care about that force nonsense anyway, so he is closest to her and made sure to use his Republic contacts and some of his own cash to get her the best equipment money can buy (off the books of course). She's got awesome armor, a fast ship, and more gadgets than Batman at her disposal. She is actually badass normal enough that with a little luck she can fight a Jedi and have a reasonable chance of winning. She's respected among bounty hunters for her skills but loses points for the fact that she keeps letting sympathetic bounties go. The only thing she wants that he wouldn't give her is the Millennium Falcon, because it's his ship.
She's also close to her brother Ben, who she feels supplanted her in Leia and Luke's hearts, bit Ben himself is a good kid she she's got that strange love-hate feeling most siblings have when rivalry goes too far.
The theme of the first movie will be about home and where you find it. Rey finds hers in space like her dad did. A fast ship, a full belly, and she's happy.
The story starts after the iconic crawl with Rey's fighter in a battle against half a dozen ships that absolutely don't look like TIE fighters but some original design. She wipes the floor with them, taking serious damage along the way and is forced to crash land. Then she just basically phones home for a tow and it works.
She's got a line on Snoke, the madman Sith wannabe who's be challenging Luke's teachings. He's apparently got his own students in a dark mirror to Luke's academy. The first act will be an odd-man couple as she's forced to work with Ben Solo, teeth-clenched all the way while trying to find Snoke and uncover his crimes. Which is a problem since Snoke claims he's not a sith but a worshipper of the dark side and uses a loophole in the Republic constitution guaranteeing religious freedom to protect himself. Where the Jedi failed to find a crime, Han thinks his girl might pull it off and has given her a bounty to find dirt on Snoke.
Kylo Ren is probably the best thing in the sequels so keep him as is, just do a little more showing and less telling. His fall is tragic and should be part of the first movie, in which he starts out on the side of heroes and is lured away at the climax. Show him guiltily hiding his Vader fetish. Show him having temper tantrums while Luke sagely tells him anger is of the dark side and let go, with no appreciable results because that's not what he needs and Luke really doesn't understand him. Ben sees true, major injustices happening every day and he can't do anything about it because he has to respect the law (that says the rich get away with every thing), that violence is not the Jedi way (Ben points out Luke's hypocrisy by asking how he planned to deal with the emperor on the death star. Towards the end of the movie have him choose to join Snoke willingly. Really show that he's torn between staying with his family or following this new teacher who, it seems understands him.
The actual climax will come with the other Jedi coming to stop Snoke, who has every legal right to worship as he wishes and is smugly immune to charges, his beliefs are protected rights and he's no kidnapping but allowing Kylo to make his own decision. He's also deliberately riling the Jedi up and has recording droids ready to see them snap and publish his smear piece. Perhaps have an earlier quite conversation where he notes that he'll never actually get Ben Solo but if he can get some angry jedi to break the law on camera it would be a huge coup.
Into this seething mess of rage and hate, where even the Jedi and running on anger and rage, the first couple of Jedi draw their lightsabers and advance on Ben and Snoke. Snoke insists he's unarmed while Kylo locks swords with the two Jedi. And just as blood was about to be spilled, we get a low angle of two boots striding up to them, Iconic rebel uniform boots.
"Put those down." Luke commands and every lightsaber goes off like a like. The Jedi look a little ashamed as look glowers at them before giving Ben a more heartfelt smile.
"You're sure you want to do this?" he asks, and Ben's practically spazzing out here, twitchy and has to restart his sentence three times because he's so conflicted (and a little scared) but Luke puts a comforting hand on Ben's shoulder, and tells him to remember that he loves him, he'll always be Ben's uncle, and he'll always be there for him, even if he makes mistakes. Snoke counters with how these weak words only draw Ben's strength away and he'll show him true power that Luke is afraid of, something better than mere hugs.
Newly minted Kylo Ren puts on the mask for the first time and goes with Snoke, though he looks back at the last second, and Luke reminds him that whatever happens, he has a place to come back to. Snoke sneers and the ship leaves.
Luke sags a bit and walks past his disciples, who ask why he didn't stop Ben. He tells them, looking strong and wise, that it was Ben's decision to go and they had to respect that. Then he decides he's going to go flying and climbs into his X-Wing. Once's he's sealed in the cockpit, he breaks down and cries.
Man, that ran way longer than I planned, and I'm tired now and it's getting disjointed, maybe write more tomorrow.