Via Cinemablend.com:

J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens is very much expected to be the continuation of the original saga, picking things up 30 years later with the likes of Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa and Han Solo – but don’t expect there to be too many callbacks to that portion of the franchise. This is because the director actually found a point during development where the production found itself pulling back on those elements because they felt like they were simply trying too hard.

It was while talking with Vanity Fair for their recent Star Wars issue that J.J. Abrams made this reveal. Discussing the film’s relationship with the six previous chapters in the franchise as well as the 30 year gap that exists between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, Abrams noted that the early stages of the project did spend a good amount of time seeing how elements from that history could be seeded in. But eventually they hit a point where they felt it necessary to limit those kinds of references. The director explained,

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