Despite the fact that Star Wars: The Force Awakens has been a critical and commercial hit, there has inevitably been some backlash against J.J. Abrams’ follow-up to Return of the Jedi. Much of that has revolved around the similarities between his movie and A New Hope, with some fans going to far as to claim that Episode VII is basically just a “rip-off” of the original.

That’s ridiculous, but there are definitely some similarities, and Abrams has now addressed that head on, as well as weighing in on why he decided against being part of Episode VIII.

“I knew that, whatever we did, there would be a group of people — and I was just hoping and praying that it would be smaller than not — that would take issue with any number of things. But I knew we weren’t making the movie for any other reason than we believed that it could be something meaningful and special and entertaining and worthy of people’s time.”

“I can understand that someone might say, ‘Oh, it’s a complete rip-off!’ What was important for me was introducing brand new characters using relationships that were embracing the history that we know to tell a story that is new — to go backwards to go forwards,” he adds.

As for why he isn’t helming the next two instalments, Abrams added: “I realized when I was working on [The Force Awakens], the amount of energy that was required to tell the story, and do it justice, knowing when Episode VIII would start shooting, there was no way — if I wanted to still have my children talk to me in my old age — that doing that would make any sense. If The Force Awakens worked, it was be the perfect place to say, ‘I got to make a Star Wars movie,’ and not be a greedy bastard. If it didn’t work, no-one would want me doing it anyway.” That lines up wth what we’ve heard in the past, though it’s definitely a shame!

Whether Rian Johnson’s Star Wars Episode VIII will be able to top The Force Awakens remains to be seen, but there’s no denying that both he and Colin Trevorrow are going to have their work cut out for them. Of course, next up is Gareth Edwards’ Rogue One: A Star Wars story, and while that’s not part of the main trilogy, expectations are at an all-time high.