Sun Fin wrote:If we get Thrawn and Mara I'll be happy! Also Chewie back is a huge bonus!
There is a (as of now) unnamed Imperial Admiral in the novels who is heavily suspected to be the new canon/EU's version of Thrawn, who was compared to Thrawn by the author of the book, and in the books was consolidating the Imperial Remnant/burgeoning First Order's power by eliminating admirals who were weak or useless to the cause. But we'll have to wait for more about him.
ky9ersfan wrote:I am kind of thinking, that Kylo Ren will be a former Jedi Knight turned sith lord/commander.
Ren was part of an Dark Side-using organization called the Knights of Ren that only came about post-Endor, and Ren himself according to pre-release materials was born after Endor. He's also been confirmed to have been seduced to the Dark Side by Snoke, the leader of the First Order who is also a user of the Dark Side. Abrams has also stated that Ren and Snoke are not Sith.
Sun Fin wrote:I'm excited for this but as they release books in the new timeline I am sad to see the whole of the EU go up in flames.
Well, the Legends/old EU stuff was never really canon beyond broad strokes, and it's mostly just an alternate universe now. There probably won't be any new things created for it, though.
All that aside, I'm a little nervous as the release date approaches. From what we've seen, that there are a lot of similarities between a New Hope and The Force Awakens, and I'm hoping that TFA can do its own thing instead of just being a rehash of ANH.