There’s a famous story that the first rough cut of Star Wars: A New Hope was an unmitigated disaster. Leaving aside that some of the special effects weren’t complete, many of the scenes seemed cringe-worthy and camp. Then they added John Williams’ score, and suddenly the film just worked. It added an epic quality to the action and has gone down as one of the all-time greatest movie scores.
Now he’s back. Variety is reporting that John Williams has written a new main theme for the highly anticipated Disney Plus show Obi-Wan Kenobi, which was recorded last week by a Los Angeles orchestra under very high security to prevent leaks.
This will delight fans, as Williams is the undisputed sound of Star Wars. He scored every movie in the Skywalker Saga up to The Rise of Skywalker, in addition to contributing to the score for Solo: A Star Wars Story and providing the theme for the ‘Galaxy’s Edge’ Disney park. But, with Williams now 90 years old, many assumed he was done with a galaxy far, far away.
Then again, given that he’s also working on scores for Spielberg’s upcoming movie The Fabelmans and Indiana Jones 5, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised he can fit this in.
Williams’ previous themes for Obi-Wan are some of Star Wars‘ most recognizable music, with the A New Hope piece becoming the theme for the Force in general. Naturally, then, hopes are high for Ewan McGregor’s return as arguably the Jedi Order’s most popular member this spring.
Obi-Wan Kenobi lands on Disney Plus on May 25.
