The Star Wars: Episode 7 - The Force Awakens, director J.J. Abrams was up for a tremendous challenge, as he comes face to face with a fantasy world he knew and loved.

The 49 year old director grew up a Star Wars fan. It was natural for him to feel a lot of uncertainty as he stepped into George Lucas' space opera, with the gigantic task of meeting the 'Death Star-sized' expectations that awaits the movie and its fans.

Director J.J. Abrams said in a recent interview, "That was a constant in the production of the movie: moments where we would all look around and realize what we were doing and gasp a little bit and then dive back in," director Abrams also said, "When you're on the set of the Millennium Falcon or staring into the eyes of C3PO giving direction, it's pretty easy to have that fanatic part of you bubble up. But our job was to be there to tell this story, not to be a fanboy."

Anthony Daniels, who is best known for portraying the robot C-3PO in the Star Wars film series, said that director J.J. Abrams is less robotic than George Lucas (the American film director and creator of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises).

Daniels likes J.J. Abrams' style of collaborating with the cast, he says the director listens to what they have to say unlike Lucas.

"George has changed a lot over the years, but I think he finds it slightly hard to collaborate," the actor explained. "He made decisions that I believe might have been better discussed with other people."

The veteran also added that Lucas relied a lot on CGI special effects, so he definitely likes Abram's grounded filmmaking style. He said the director made use of actual sets. They had walls, windows, probably not a view outside the window, but they did the old-fashioned kind of film-making.

"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" will kick off on December 17, 2015.