There are two camps of sci-fi fans in the world: Star Trek fans and Star Wars fans. Abrams managed to do a well enough job on rebooting Trek, that he appeased almost the entire community. It really brought the whole series into the modern era, the casting was great, writing was solid, and of course..it looked fucking awesome. The sound track was arguably the best part of the film though.
Anyways, LucasArts has a lot to prove with a new series. I think it's generally decided that the second trilogy was terrible, with Revenge of the Sith providing some good eye-candy and a few dramatic moments that weren't eye-rollingly-awful. There's a debate as to if Jar-Jar or Hayden Christiansen were a bigger blight on the series as a whole. So they had to do something to gain the trust of their following again, because any new SW movie is going to generate a bajillion dollars at the box office. I think throwing in an established director who knows his way around the genre, and is a huge Star Wars fan with the respect of millions of sci-fi fans, has to be regarded as a good choice.
From a production standpoint, Abrams has had a few flops. Revolution is pretty popular, but I still haven't found anybody that likes it. The common phrase as "it's such a good concept, I keep watching hoping that it will get better." Person of Interest was another great concept, with one of the best LOSt characters, but Jesus is one of the worst, most boring actors on the planet. I like Fringe, but it's been met with some deserved criticism. The point is, he's had some TV shows that didn't catch on, or just weren't written well or casted for properly. Not really JJ's fault, although he does shoulder some of the blame as executive producer.
That being said, as a director - the thing he'd be actually responsible for in Star Wars VII - he's got a pretty decent track record. It's short, but I thought Super 8, MI:3 and Star Trek were all fantastic films. And as a writer he brings those, plus shows like Lost and Alias to the table.
Abrams knows his way around science fiction. He lives it and breaths it; it is his personal favorite thing to work on. But despite everything else he's done, the best example you can look at is the Star Trek reboot. I saw it 4 times in theaters, so maybe I'm a little bit biased. But his reboot of it made me a Star Trek fan. I was never into it, but he made me want to go back and watch episodes of TOS, and the entirety of TNG. And I will be first in line to see Into Darkness this summer.
So with J.J. Abrams directing, George Lucas working on the characters, Michael Arndt (Toy Story 3, Oblivion, Brave, Little Miss Sunshine) writing the screenplay and LucasFilms pumping an unlimited amount of resources into the project, I see potential for greatness. I don't think Abrams will settle for anything bad. He's too big of a fan, and too proud of his own work to make another second trilogy. Plus, they have completely uncharted territory to work with. Lucas hasn't already written these films. They can go in new directions, and the fans won't know what to expect. I've never lived in an age where, as a Star Wars fan, I didn't know what was coming in the next film. And I'm really excited to see how that team works together, particularly if the rumors of the original cast returning are true.
Still, it would have been badass to see Timothy Zhan's trilogy become a reality...
