It has been clear for quite some time that J.J. Abrams plans to revitalize the Star Wars franchise with Episode VII by attempting to recapture the innocence, optimism, and swashbuckling action of the original trilogy (see "Disney Is Taking 'Star Wars' Back to Its Roots"), but until this past weekend it was not known whether the creators of Episode VII would make use of the expanded universe (and numerous characters) created for the officially licensed Star Wars novels, comics, and games.  The answer it appears, is that the new movies will draw their inspiration from the six previous Star Wars films and will ignore the expanded SW universe.
 
Simon Kinberg, who is writing a script for one of the new Star Wars films, and is also a producer on the Star Wars Rebels animated series, indicated to IGN that, while the cartoon series will grab elements from the expanded universe, the movies will not: "You know, it’s not off-limits, and it’s certainly inspiring--I’m working on an animated show for [Lucasfilm] as well, Star Wars Rebels, that will take inspiration from everywhere, but--I know for the movies, the canon is the canon, and the canon is the six films that exist."