re: J.J. Abrams is regretting not directing Episode VIII

Lawrence Kasdan has also gone out of his way to praise the hell out of the Episode 8 script, calling it a "weird thing" and that he absolutely just loved it. He was seriously gushing about it.

Rian has filled notebooks and notebooks on worldbuilding, detail, plot development, script notes (he tweeted out some of the notebooks). He's been working on it for a long time. I think he's going to knock it out of the damn park.

The fact that Disney gave him script duty on Episode 9 as well must mean they have a lot of confidence as well. And this era of Disney doesn't frick around.