tar Wars fans opposite a star let out a hearten during a unequivocally astonishing proclamation in late 2012: George Lucas had sole a tenure of Lucasfilm and all a properties, including a rights to a Star Wars franchise, to Disney. And Disney is already operative to furnish a film that will continue a story where 1983’s Episode VI: Return of a Jedi left off. Episode VII is approaching to strike theaters in 2015.

Of course, fans are clamoring for each taste of information they can get — but Star Wars being Star Wars, a internet gibberish on Episode VII has grown so noisy that it can be tough to keep lane of what we indeed know about a sequel. So here, a useful guide:

1. Kathleen Kennedy is producing, Michael Arndt is writing, and J.J. Abrams is directing
Star Wars: Episode VII will be constructed underneath a sharp eye of Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy, whose decades of prolongation credits embody dear films like E.T.: The Extraterrestrial, Back to a Future, and Jurassic Park, as good as some-more new and rather less-beloved films like War Horse, The Adventures of Tintin, and Lincoln. 

Right out of a gate, producers hired Michael Arndt, whose essay credits embody Toy Story 3 and a arriving The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, to coop a book for Episode VII. But Kathleen Kennedy’s biggest manoeuvre was convincing Star Trek executive J.J. Abrams to franchise-hop over to Star Wars. When a film was announced, Abrams was one of a initial names thrown around in media reports as a probable contender, nonetheless Abrams himself deserted a idea. “I am looking brazen some-more than anyone to a subsequent iterations of Star Wars, nonetheless we trust we will be going as a profitable moviegoer,” he pronounced in November. Kennedy says she came to Abrams with a elementary and convincing pitch: “Please do Star Wars.” By January, Abrams had strictly sealed on to direct.

2. George Lucas will offer as “creative consultant”
Though array creator George Lucas ceded all control to both a Star Wars authorization and Lucasfilm when he sole a association to Disney, he stays a “creative consultant” for Episode VII. What accurately does “creative consultant” mean? According to Lucas himself, his pursuit is “helping out with a script,” nonetheless his purpose will be far, distant some-more hands-off than it was for prior films. This time, he’ll merely grandfather a array and offer submit when necessary. “That’s all my pursuit is, to be a screw of a flame,” adds Lucas. And during slightest one other Star Wars artistic maestro has supposed a consulting job: Lawrence Kasdan, who wrote both Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Episode VI: Return of a Jedi. 

3. The story will be original
Though Episode VI: Return of a Jedi represented a finish of a Star Wars array on film, a story has been continued by countless other writers in novels, comic books, and video games. But according to numerous sources, even a supposed “canonical” Star Wars universe, that includes renouned entries like Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn Trilogy novels, has been thrown out of a new central story continuity. Forget all we know after Return of a Jedi, Star Wars fans — it’s a wide-open star again.

4. Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher are very, unequivocally expected to appear
Though an central proclamation hasn’t been done yet, all signs indicate to Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher reprising a roles of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia for a sequel. In a Mar interview, George Lucas said a prolongation “had already sealed Mark and Carrie and Harrison — or we were flattering most in a final stages of negotiation,” nonetheless he refused to endorse that a negotiations had been successful.

But a weeks following Lucas’ talk have been full of hints that a franchise’s strange actors are already set to appear. In April, Harrison Ford told a Daily News that he “can’t say,” nonetheless that that he’s “excited about presumably returning.” Later that month, Fisher told a throng in Calgary that she’s happy Episode VII is function “because they are promulgation a tutor to my residence so we can get in unequivocally good shape.” You can safely assume that all 3 actors will seem in a film. Less clear: The size of their roles.

5. John Williams will substantially be essay a score
It’s tough for many fans to suppose a Star Wars film though John Williams’ egotistic measure — quite a imperishable pretension theme, that helped a initial Star Wars film cocktail off a shade from a impulse it began. Fortunately, fans substantially won’t have to suppose a Williams-less Star Wars; at an Apr 29 promotional coming for Star Trek Into Darkness in Berlin, J.J. Abrams revealed that Williams is expected to return. “For Star Wars, it’s unequivocally early days — nonetheless we trust that, going forward, John Williams will be doing that film, since he was there prolonged before we was,” pronounced Abrams.

6. Episodes VIII and IX are already in pre-production
2015 might sound far, distant divided to Star Wars fans, nonetheless we’ll shortly be be adult to a necks in Star Wars films. In an talk during CinemaCon, Kathleen Kennedy suggested that a studio hopes Abrams will lapse to approach Episodes VIII and IX, completing nonetheless another trilogy in a franchise. And looking over a categorical series, Disney has even bigger skeleton for a franchise; a association is also developing a array of stand-alone films, that means that starting in 2015, during slightest one new film set in a Star Wars star will be expelled each year until 2020.