honestly I think their best option is to only have loose ties to the previous movies..... some brief cameos by the original cast scattered throughout (with their actual ages... set it 25 years later or so) .... but ultimately I think they should be primarily focusing on a new storyline and a new group of heroes.... progress things forward so they could expand with new stories in the future.. (and obviously they could always go backwards before the PT as well if they wanted to)

if they absolutely need a recurring character link to the other movies toss in R2 and 3PO as sidekicks on the new adventure.