Episode VII director and co-screenwriter J.J. Abrams recently did a new interview with The Times Magazine, where of course the subject of Star Wars came up, and he shares his thoughts on the fan bases for the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy, as well as how he loves the fact that A New Hope brought audiences to a new unfamiliar world. You have to be a subscriber to The Times Magazine to read the full interview, but here are some the highlights of the article that focuses on Star Wars:

[blockquote cite=””]His thoughts on the infamous video “4 Rules to Make Star Wars Great Again.”: “I would say that’s  a feeling that we share very much …” Speaking of him and the crew.

On how A New Hope was an unfamiliar new world: “I loved how Star Wars had that sense of a world far beyond the borders of what you can see and have been told – it’s one of the things it did so brilliantly. If you watch the first movie, you don’t actually know exactly what the Empire is trying to do. They’re going to rule by fear – but you don’t know what their end game is. The beauty of that movie was that it was an unfamiliar world, and yet you wanted to see it expand and to see where it went.”

Understanding the fan bases for the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy: “A lot of kids who saw all the prequels when they were young really do identify with those movies as much as my generation identified with the originals.”[/blockquote]

He of course didn’t reveal any new information about Episode VII, but I for one was glad to hear that he understands that the prequels have a strong fan base just as the original trilogy does.