JJ Abrams, director of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, has said he hopes to transform the long-running space opera from a “boys’ thing” to a female-friendly franchise.

Speaking on US show Good Morning America, Abrams echoed previous suggestions by Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, the new episode’s main producer, that the latest Star Wars movie would place more emphasis on female characters.

“Star Wars was always a boys’ thing, and a movie that dads could take their sons to,” he said. “And although that is still very much the case, I was really hoping this could be a movie that mothers could take their daughters to as well.”

Where the original Star Wars trilogy featured Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia as one of the main supporting characters, Abrams has introduced the mysterious Rey, played by British actor Daisy Ridley, in what appears to be a genuine lead role. There are also women in the kind of strong supporting roles which simply did not exist in 1977’s Star Wars and its sequels, from Lupita Nyong’o’s wise and ancient space pirate Maz Kanata to Gwendoline Christie’s imposing, Chrome-plated warrior Captain Phasma.

Fisher will also return as Leia in The Force Awakens, though the character will now be known as Resistance leader General Organa, reflecting her change in status from the Rebel Alliance fighter who found herself wearing a gold bikini and chained to monstrous alien Jabba the Hutt in 1983’s Return of the Jedi.

Abrams also reveals in his interview for the new issue of Empire that the lightsaber battles in The Force Awakens will hark back to the style of those from the original trilogy.

“When you look at Star Wars and [The] Empire [Strikes Back], they are very different lightsaber battles, but for me they felt more powerful because they were not quite as slick [as the prequels],” he said. “I was hoping to go for something much more primitive, aggressive and rougher, a throwback to the kind of heart-stopping lightsaber fights I remembered being so enthralled by as a kid.”

Meanwhile Steven Spielberg, who Ridley recently revealed has seen Abrams’s film three times, has begun cheerleading the movie in an echo of his support for the original Star Wars movie. “I think The Force Awakens could be the biggest movie of all time,” he told French broadcaster RTL while promoting his new espionage thriller, Bridge of Spies.