John Williams: “I’d love” to score James Bond

Legendary composer John Williams has stated he’d “love” to compose a James Bond score…and we would love to hear it! In an interview with British radio station Classic FM, he expressed his interest in Bond and reflected on where his career is now.

Of course, with John Williams recently announcing his retirement following the fifth Indiana Jones outing, scoring a James Bond movie will most certainly never happen. He has reportedly completed around 30% of the Indy 5 score.

John Williams said he would rather not commit to such staggering lengths of time that film composing requires. Despite the pressures that go into the job, he is still very much enjoying it. “I’m having fun … I invent something – ‘Ah, this can work, I can expand this in this way and orchestrate it in that way.’” So no, it’s too much “fun” to retire entirely, which he hinted at earlier this year. Even though he’ll be 91 by the time Indiana Jones 5 comes out, he’ll be shifting focus to concert work. That’s right, being a nonagenarian won’t push Williams to completely hang up his baton.

John Williams has a record 47 Academy Award nominations for Best Original Score, with five wins, most recently nearly 30 years ago for Schindler’s List. Total, he has 52 nods, a superlative that makes him the living person with the most nominations; he is behind only Walt Disney’s 59 as the most nominated person in Oscars history.

The James Bond franchise only has two Best Original Score nominations, for 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me and 2012’s Skyfall. (It has fared better in the Best Original Song category, winning three times.) Williams’ most recent nomination came from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

What are your thoughts on John Williams’ enthusiasm about scoring a James Bond movie? What would you expect from him?