It's really stupid that they completely threw out the expanded universe when they wrote the new trilogy, there were a lot of great storylines they could have at least partially adapted that would have given them a cohesive story for a trilogy. I'm gonna go full Captain here and make a long winded post picking pieces of the EU to make a decent story
Movie 1: Opening crawl explains the New Republic had thrived in the 30 years since the fall of the Emperor, but now there are reports of ships with imperial designs attacking outer worlds. The senate is stuck arguing over intervention as those worlds rejected republic control after the fall of the Empire.
Luke has rebuilt the Jedi temple on Yavin-4 and has just promoted his first batch of recruits (including Han and Leia's twins Ben and Jaina) to Jedi Masters. There is significant debate within the Jedi of whether or not to investigate the outer world attacks, as the Republic still hasn't made a decision. Ben Solo decides to take action on his own, and takes a group of younger Jedi and Padawans with him to the outer worlds. Upon learning this, Han and Chewie take off with the Falcon after him and are joined by a group of Republic fighters tired of waiting for the senate to take action
Through the force, Ben is drawn to a remote planet and discovers a resurgent Imperial military. He broadcasts the location, Han and company join him and cue the space and ground battles. During the fighting a Sith warrior is encountered and kills many of the young Jedi and Padawans, and is about to kill Ben when Han sacrifices himself to save his son. Enraged, Ben draws upon the dark side to kill the Sith and the rest of the Imperial forces. He then starts hearing strange whispers, which promise to grant him untold power. He finds a Sith navigation beacon and along with a few surviving Jedi recruits head to the unknown regions, end credits
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