Such clamor and excitement around what is essentially J.J. Abrams‘ follow-up to the much-derided Star Trek: Into Darkness might be strange if perceived in a vacuum, but the director himself recognized the flaws of some of his previous work in a new interview. “I didn’t want to enter into making a movie where we didn’t really own our story. I feel like I’ve done that a couple of times in my career,” he tells Wired. “That’s not to say I’m not proud of my work, but the fact is I remember starting to shoot Super 8 and Star Trek Into Darkness and feeling like I hadn’t really solved some fundamental story problems.”

He goes on to talk about Rian Johnson‘s follow-up, saying, “The script for VIII is written. I’m sure rewrites are going to be endless, like they always are. But what Larry [Kasdan, whose Han Solo spin-off will be his swan song for the franchise] and I did was set up certain key relationships, certain key questions, conflicts. And we knew where certain things were going. We had meetings with Rian and Ram Bergman, the producer of VIII. They were watching dailies when we were shooting our movie. We wanted them to be part of the process, to make the transition to their film as seamless as possible. I showed Rian an early cut of the movie, because I knew he was doing his rewrite and prepping. And as executive producer of VIII, I need that movie to be really good. Withholding serves no one and certainly not the fans. So we’ve been as transparent as possible.”

Abrams continues, discussing the inner workings of the ensemble, saying “We knew we weren’t just casting one movie—we were casting at least three. That, to me, was the biggest challenge. When we met Daisy Ridley, when we found John Boyega, and then Oscar Isaac and Adam Driver came aboard, we got really excited. And yes, Daisy and John could work together, but what happens when Harrison’s in the mix? What will that feel like? If it doesn’t spark, it’s a fucking disaster. Yes, BB-8 is a great character, amazingly puppeteered, but what will happen when he’s suddenly in a scene with C-3P0 or R2-D2? Will it feel bizarre? Will it feel wrong? Somehow it didn’t. When Anthony Daniels told me, “Oh my God, I love BB-8!” I said, “We’re going to be OK.” Because if he’s OK, it’s working.”

While we won’t get to see if Star Wars: The Force Awakens indeed works for another five weeks or so, EW has delivered a massive batch of new photos, which can be seen above and below.