When you consider how long the STAR WARS franchise has been around, it's sort of remarkable that it's been mostly one man who has provided all the wondrous music which fills the feature films. John Williams has provided the score for seven STAR WARS movies, and will be returning to score STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI as well, and it wasn't until ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY that the franchise received another composer, Michael Giacchino. With another STAR WARS spin-off on the way, the STAR WARS franchise is set to welcome a third composer to the fold.
It has been announced that John Powell, who has scored THE BOURNE IDENTITY, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, UNITED 93, HANCOCK, and KUNG FU PANDA, has been tapped by Disney/Lucasfilm to compose the score for the UNTITLED HAN SOLO STAR WARS ANTHOLOGY FILM. Per the official press release, the composer will be scoring the spin-off "in the style of the original Star Wars movies but [will] retain Powell’s distinctive voice." Although the HAN SOLO film has certainly had its share of troubles, here's hoping that it will avoid any other shake ups. ROGUE ONE originally had Alexandre Desplat set to score the film, but due to the ongoing reshoots which pushed the post-production schedule back, Desplat became unavailable. Michael Giacchino stepped in to replace him and was left with just four and a half weeks to compose the score.
After Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were fired from the UNTITLED HAN SOLO STAR WARS ANTHOLOGY FILM with just three weeks left on the schedule, Lucasfilm tapped Ron Howard to shepherd the remainder of the film. Howard is still hard at work on the STAR WARS spin-off in what are likely some fairly significant reshoots in order to get the film into the shape which the studio wants.
The UNTITLED HAN SOLO STAR WARS ANTHOLOGY FILM is still set for a May 25, 2018 release.