In a new interview with Wired, Star Wars: The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams talks about piecing together one of the biggest sequels ever made, as well as the pressures and luxuries of building upon a mythology that's not only established, but ridiculously celebrated worldwide. And what was the surprising key to it all, according to Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan, who helped shape the story alongside Abrams?

That it be "delightful."  

"“How do we make this movie delightful?” That was really the only requirement Larry and I imposed on each other: The movie needed to be delightful," Abrams tells Wired. "It was not about explaining everything away, not about introducing a certain number of toys for a corporation, not about trying to appease anyone. This has only ever been about what gets us excited."

With a little over a month to go before The Force Awakens hits theaters -- and with about five separate previews out in the wild, all running at different lengths -- a couple of the biggest takeaways so far are that the next Star Wars sequel will feel very much like the original trilogy in terms of tone and character, and also -- well, it's kinda dark. But not really delightful.

Sure, it's delightful seeing the old Star Wars gang back together, and how similar the tone of the film seems to be to the movies we all fell in love with a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, but based on Abrams' comments it would seem as if the greatest part of this film hasn't been revealed yet at all -- that being its delightfulness.

5 More Things We Learn About Star Wars: The Force Awakens from Abrams' Interview

1. The script for Star Wars Episode VIII is complete.

Even though Disney isn't focusing on episode numbers when it promotes this new Star Wars trilogy, Abrams still refers to the movies as Episodes VII, VIII and IX. The director also touches on his collaboration with Kasdan, as well as how he's assisting in passing the torch to Rian Johnson, who's writing and directing the next episode in the trilogy. 

"The script for VIII is written," he says. "I’m sure rewrites are going to be endless, like they always are. But what Larry and I did was set up certain key relationships, certain key questions, conflicts. And we knew where certain things were going."

2. There will be scenes with BB-8, C-3PO and R2-D2 all together.

While we've seen a whole lot of BB-8 in the marketing promos leading up to the release of The Force Awakens, we haven't seen much of the franchise's two most popular droids, C-3PO and R2-D2. In talking about how much fun it'll be to see how the old characters interact with the new ones, Abrams teased moments where they're all together. 

"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."

Additionally, while many rumors online are pointing to BB-8 being a female droid, Abrams refers to BB-8 here as a "he". Hmmm...

3. Han Solo will feel like a 70-year-old dude.

In shaping the film, Abrams wanted to make it clear that time had passed since we last saw these characters, and that their experiences in that time have shaped them into different people, especially Han Solo, who's a lot older now than he was back in Return of the Jedi.

"It was important that Han Solo be Han Solo but not feel like he’s playing a 30-year-old dude," he says. "When you’re 70, you will have lived a different set of experiences. That has to be apparent in who he is. Harrison was required to bring a level of complexity that a 30-year-old Han wouldn’t be required to have."

4. It was important to Abrams that he was able to own the story, unlike some of his past experiences.

Abrams speaks highly of his collaboration with Kasdan on the film, alluding to having solved some of the issues he's had on previous movies, like Super 8 and Star Trek Into Darkness.

"More than anything, I drew on personal experiences as cautionary tales, things that I didn’t want to do again," he says. "For example, 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. 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."

5. Don't worry, the movie is just as good as those teasers.

Abrams compares the Star Wars marketing campaign to "walking a tightrope" and admits that he is the one who pushed to release a teaser one year out from release because, as a fan, he would've loved to see anything he could at that point. And when commended for the work done on each teaser and trailer, Abrams assured us that the movie is just as good as those little teases of it.

"What I’m excited about is that the movie itself feels like those teasers and not like the movie is one thing and the teasers are something else."

There's lots more stuffed in this chat, so head on over to Wired to check it all out. Star Wars: The Force Awakens hits theaters on December 18.