I wanted to avoid hopping into this, but might as well!
I am an enormous fan of Rogue One and The Mandalorian.
I have a friend who starred in Solo, despite this, I believe it is a horrid film.
My reaction to episode 7 is as follows: Very well made, does not add much new in terms of Star Wars but sets up some really interesting characters. I am excited to see where this goes.
My reaction to episode 8 is as follows: Well that was interesting. Everything that episode 7 was thrown out the window, so many quintessential aspects of Star Wars were trashed through horrid leadership. The transition from J.J. Abrams to Rian Johnson led to the mess which was 8. I found myself disliking all the characters, regardless of their gender.
Returning to episode 7 with episode 8 in mind makes me dislike the film as everything it was building up to turn to ash.
I do not dislike the new trilogy because of the strong female leads, I dislike it because it is a bad movie.
Last I recall, Rouge One contained a female lead. It is 0.6 points higher than Episode 8 on IMBD, and 0.1 higher than Episode 3, the highest-rated prequel despite not having female leads.
Before I end my Star Wars rant, I believe the franchise as a whole is massively overrated, not saying it is bad, but I am far from the cult following it has come to acquire.
Just going to bring up Captain Marvel for good measures. I saw the film prior to seeing Endgame. I went in with rock-bottom expectations and I enjoyed it. It was not anything special but nor are 75% of Marvel films.
For nearly every aspect of life, boxes have to be checked for ratios of genders, races, and sexualities. Forcing characters into a piece of entertainment specifically to appease individuals is not doing anyone justice. The same for removing characters from a piece of entertainment to appease individuals.
Concluding that an individual is sexist simply because they dislike a movie that has a female lead is simply naive. Likes and dislikes are extraordinarily subjective, especially in regards to movies.