Related: ‘Star Wars: Episode VII’ Gets December 2015 Release Date

Changing the screenplay team on the new Star Wars movie was all about time, said JJ Abrams today. “It became clear that given the time frame and given the process and the way the thing was going that working with Larry in this way was going to get us where we need to be and when we needed to be,” said the Episode VII director Thursday. “Working with Larry Kasdan, especially on a Star Wars movie is kind of unbeatable,” Abrams told Deadline. The upcoming Disney project is set to be released in 2015. On October 24, it was announced that Abrams would take over the writing of the script for the upcoming new Star Wars pic with Empire Strikes Back co-writer Lawrence Kasdan. Oscar winner and Hunger Games: Catching Fire scribe Michael Arndt had been on board as writing the script based on treatments he had drafted. The new Star Wars movie is set to start filming early next year in the UK. The Stars Wars: Episode VII director was participating in a media conference call Thursday with his fellow Almost Human EP J.H. Wyman on the upcoming Fox series.

“Working with Michael was a wonderful experience and I couldn’t be a bigger fan of his or adore him more, He’s a wonderful guy and was incredibly helpful in the process,” Abrams said of Arndt. The director also noted that while he and Kasdan have taken over the script for the first of the three new Star Wars films that Disney has planned over the next few years, “that doesn’t preclude working with Michael again in the future.” Abrams added, “he is one of the best writers around.”

After pushing back its scheduled debut by two weeks, Fox now has Almost Human launching over two nights on November 17 and 18. The Bad Robot-produced near future android police drama stars Karl Urban and Michael Ealy as a LAPD cop partnered up with a lifelike android, as is the practice in 2048.