Earlier this month it was finally revealed that Star Wars: Episode VII will hit cinemas on December 18th 2015, and now writer-director J.J. Abrams (Star Trek Into Darkness) has shared his thoughts on the release date during a chat with MTV, as well as touching upon the return of a couple of old favourites."I will say that it's infinitely a better situation now than when [Disney] were saying they wanted it in summer," said Abrams. "Before I even came onto the project, [Disney] was talking about 2015, and they made this announcement very early on. Which I understand why they would want that, but it didn't necessarily have anything to do with the reality of where was creatively. So I think that it's a hugely important thing that that come first. And a release date, great, but you have to release something great. So, to me the new release date is a huge improvement."
And, as for the recently confirmed return of R2-D2, Abrams stated, "How do you do Star Wars without R2-D2", but refused to confirm whether the astromech droid will be joined by his pal C-3PO, revealing that "they have different agents." Of course, it would be a huge surprise if C-3PO is absent, especially as Anthony Daniels has also spoken about being the only actor to feature in all seven movies.