Rogue One Soundtrack Syncs Up With the Imperial March

Rogue One continues to surprise us, even a month after its release. This time around, its composer Michael Giacchino’s homage to a very familiar piece of Star Wars music.

Rogue One composer Michael Giacchino continues to impress. Not only did Giacchino provide alternate titles for his work that were downright hilarious, but now it has emerged that Giacchino might just be a special kind of genius. Giacchino’s work on

Giacchino’s work on Rogue One was largely viewed as completely original, if not similar enough to the legendary work of original Star Wars composer John Williams. Turns out, Giacchino’s work might not be that far off from Williams, at least in one instance. Have a listen below.

Thanks to the power of the internet (and io9 for bringing it to our attention), which is to say, the power of people with too much time on their hands, we have discovered Giacchino’s secret homage to Williams’ work. Specifically, Redditor cyborgcommando0 and Tufts University professor Frank Lehmann found that the track “Hope” bore striking similarities to the “Imperial March.” When sped up, the choral element of “Hope” appears to match up perfectly with the horns of the “Imperial March.” Awesome.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

Darth Vader – Image Credit: Lucasfilm

Giacchino appears to have continued the overall trend of Rogue One, in that it subtly paid tribute to the films before it, without straying into the outright reproduction that was The Force Awakens. At least to this writer, that subtle tribute that refrains from outright copying the films before it, mark Rogue One as a far superior film to The Force Awakens. That and Darth Vader. Vader smashing those poor rebels like so many fish in a barrel was one of the highlights of the Star Wars universe.

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Either way, we salute your genius, Giacchino, and take back what we said about your work.