3. Gigantic Monsters
It might sound like common sense that a sci-fi movie set in the Star Wars universe would feature giant monsters, but cast your mind back - are there really that many giant monsters who are that memorable, other than perhaps the Sarlacc, the Wampa and Jabba the Hut? Many of the projects Abrams has been involved with have featured fantastical, gigantic creatures, be it the black smoke in Lost, Cloverfield in the movie of the same name, or the hulking beast that Kirk stumbles across on the winter planet in Star Trek. He is exceptionally skilled at helping bring these creatures to life in wondrous, often terrifying ways, and that's something the Star Wars movies could sorely use a dose of. The recent Star Wars MMORPG The Old Republic boasts such a diverse menagerie of monsters from the universe that it would be criminal not to include more of them in Episode 7, especially as Abrams seems to have a far more sturdy handle on employing visual effects than Lucas has had in recent years.