I feel like in telling stories, there are the things the audience thinks are important, and then there are the things that are actually important.

'Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope' (1977) is probably the most influential film of my generation. That work was the personification of good and evil and the way it opened up the world to space adventure, the way westerns had to our parents' generations, it left an indelible imprint. So, in a way, everything that any of us does is somehow directly or indirectly affected by the experience of seeing those first three films.

It's what happens. You love, then you lose, then you die. Even if you survive, you die.

I think that the success of the film is as much about it being something that families could share as anything else.

And the parents who knew "Star Wars" could take kids and feel like they've gone back to a place that is familiar and yet found brand-new characters that took them somewhere they'd never been. And it was important me that we embrace that feeling, and you can call it retro, but I think it's what "Star Wars" is.

The idea to put episodes out weekly in theory makes as much sense as putting them all out at once.

When there's an authentic mystery, as opposed to just a question being asked, that's what makes you lean forward.