We really haven’t heard much of anything about The Rise of Skywalker in quite a while, but it’s still coming later this year! And while there are a ton of exciting things about that, one of them is that we’ll get to hear a brand new score composed by John Williams – and quite probably the final Star Wars score he’ll do.
In a recent interview, Don Williams – John’s brother – said that John is writing 135 minutes of music for the film. That of course doesn’t exactly tell us how long the movie is going to be, but with that much music being written it’s safe to say that this movie will be a bit lengthy, which is great.
But even more interesting is the fact that Don Williams said that, “I can tell you that every theme you ever heard is gonna be compiled into this last effort.” He apparently directly mentioned that the themes for Leia, Yoda, “the Phantom”, and “Darth” will all appear in the film, but that some of them will be a bit more subtle, subdued, and hidden: “You’ll be sitting there watching the film go by and, ‘Oh, there it is!’ There’s two bars of it and it grabs you and takes you away.”
The most obvious no-brainer here is Leia’s theme, as there was zero chance we wouldn’t get it. It’s the final film for Leia Organa and Carrie Fisher, who is reprising the role one last time, posthumously. You can certainly bet we’ll be getting some of Leia’s theme, and I can almost guarantee you it’ll be quite emotional.
Another theme mentioned is Yoda’s theme. It’s possible that the theme could just show up at a random point in the film, as it’s a very hopeful and heroic theme that could fit well in any new piece about the Jedi. But I’m hoping (and think it’s probably a decent chance) that we’ll actually see Yoda once more (and I’m hoping for other Force ghosts too, besides just Luke and Yoda).
As for “the Phantom”, I’m pretty confident that Don Williams means the “Duel of the Fates” theme from The Phantom Menace. I’m really hoping that we get a brand new epic theme for the duels in TROS, as I think it deserves a theme of its own, but remember that the “Battle of the Heroes” included the “Duel of the Fates” as well. Or then Solo included the theme, but in a pretty subtle manner. So there’s a lot of ways that this could be incorporated without detracting from a new theme.
And lastly, when Williams mentions “Darth”, I have to imagine that he’s referring to Darth Vader’s “Imperial March”. This one isn’t too surprising either, as it’s an iconic theme that has become very well-known and familiar in the series. To hear it appear in the culmination of the saga, one that features the grandson of Darth Vader as one of the main characters and that will likely dive more into the history of the Skywalker family, would not surprising.
And then, of course, I imagine that we’ll hear plenty of other themes in the film as well. Rey’s theme, Kylo’s theme, and the March of the Resistance are certainly going to be in the film, and perhaps Rose’s theme too. There could be some familiar music when Lando Calrissian appears, and the Emperor’s theme is probably a pretty good guess too – as is the Force theme. So in other words, I don’t think it’s surprising that we’ll apparently hear so many great themes from Star Wars, but it will still be absolutely amazing to hear them scored by Williams once more and hear them bring scenes to life. I absolutely cannot wait!
Star Wars Thoughts 