Lucasfilm confirmed the rumors: Michael Arndt, the award-winning screenwriter of Little Miss Sunshine and Toy Story 3 has been given the green light to write the script for the upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII film. The new movie has just entered pre-production and is slated to be released in 2015. It was announced just last month as Disney acquired Lucasfilm. There has not yet been word on what the major plot points of the new chapter will entail.

However, Vulture reports that “the studio’s brass want to bring back the three central characters of the original Star Wars: a much older Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Han Solo. No deals are in place with any of the original actors, though our source did say it had high ambition to sign up Mark Hamill, and EW recently reported that Harrison Ford was open to the idea of returning.”

Vulture also noted that for the last few years Arndt has been giving talks and lectures on the art of storytelling through Star Wars: “In the comments section of a discussion about a Star Wars talk Arndt gave at the Austin Film Festival in 2010, one attendee of the seminar notes, ‘Arndt stated that if a writer could resolve the story's arcs (internal, external, philosophical) immediately after the Moment of Despair at the climax, he or she would deliver the Insanely Great Ending and put the audience in a euphoric state. The faster it could happen, the better. By [Arndt’s] reckoning, George Lucas hit those three marks at the climax of Star Wars within a space of 22 seconds.’”

Given the variety of opinion the film announcement itself brought about, how do you feel about Arndt as a lead scribe? Share your thoughts below.