two of the things they had to accomplish here was getting back the old fans who had been burned by the prequels and bringing in a generation of new fans who had little reference to what makes star wars star wars. they did it by gathering us around the one thing we could all agree on: the OT.

so, yes, TFA is ANH 2015 (with elements of ESB sprinkled in). JJ said they were gonna go backwards to move forward. now that we've had a movie that feels every bit like star wars and characters that we connect with as much as the originals... now that we're all back on board, we can move forward with new stories that will hopefully reinvent and push the boundaries of what "feels like star wars."

i saw TFA on monday afternoon and in the lobby overheard a little girl-- maybe six or seven years old-- bragging that she had already seen it three times. this movie was made just as much for her as it was for me, maybe more so. star wars now belongs to her as much as it ever did for me. i got my "nobody kid from the middle of nowhere saves the galaxy" story, now she has hers. i got my kenobi killed by vader moment, now she has hers. i got my trench run on the death star, now she has hers. i'm not mad about it.