They did introduce new characters and there was no way they were making a sequel trilogy that omitted all the characters from the OT. Why even bother making an episode VII if it isn’t going to have any relation to the previous installments?
I can only imagine the complaints in this thread if there were no old characters.
If there were no old characters and the film was good as I had been told by the media, non Star wars Fans and the like I would be happy. I was astounded at the lack of originality, people slate Jedi as a ANH clone, at least it was a good effort in comparison to this abortion.