Bringing this back to Star Wars....
The entire foundation for the prequels came from a single scene in SW, in Obi-Wan's hut. Nearly all of the necessary backstory stems from that conversation, with the most sincere delivery given to the line, "...and he was a good friend." That was missing in the prequels, and the mistake came from starting the story when Anakin was a child. Hell, one of the chief complaints of TPM was the idea of Midichlorians, a plot device to explain why Anakin HAD to become a Jedi. I have yet to find anyone who liked that idea, and if anything, most felt that it detracted from the mysticism. To me, that is the key to the whole thing, and if Abrams is confirmed, I hope he and the writer return to this notion. I don't want scientific descriptions or justifications for everything. I don't want be told that someone is a great pilot or a great friend; I want to see it.