Who could score future Star Wars films? Here are five candidates
By J. Wiley
As John Williams steps down from his hallowed position as musical maestro, the Star Wars films will be looking for new musical voices.
With the impending release of Star Wars : Episode IX little more than a year away we will soon be treated to the climax of the Skywalker family saga. Also coming to an end is the musical tenure of maestro John Williams. While it goes without saying that nobody could ever hope to outdo or replace his impact on the musical language of the series, the movies will of course continue on. So too, must the music.
Below are a few composers who I’d like to see take a crack at scoring a Star Wars film – or series of films – and thus continuing to push the films into new sonic territories.
A few notes: this is not a comprehensive list of composers working in Hollywood – merely a group of composers I’m familiar with. The list is non-hierarchical. I may list composition duos under a singular heading. This list is purely fan-based speculation. Everyone here has experience with scoring films, but some may be less obvious than others. With those caveats stated, let’s get to it!
Ramin Djwadi
(Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images)
Where you know them : You can hear this composers impressive musical chops in genre TV favorites such as Game of Thrones and Westworld. His film work includes both A Wrinkle In Time (working with Disney before is a plus!) and the bombastic score for Pacific Rim.
Why they work for Star Wars: Ramin clearly has a command of the symphony as an artistic tool. One need only listen to the powerful opening for Game of Thrones to get a sense of his use of scale. The smaller character driven themes (Rains of Castamere anyone?) in the show also demonstrate how he might approach the continuing use of leitmotifs for characters, thus paying homage to the master John Williams. It also doesn’t hurt that he has a long and storied history working with Benioff and Weiss, who lest we forget, are still set to make a series of films in the Star Wars universe.
Notable Work: