John Williams confirms that he will return to score Star Wars: Episode IX

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Not that there was ever much doubt, but John Williams has confirmed that he will be returning to score STAR WARS: EPISODE IX. Cue the well orchestrated celebrations. While speaking with Variety, Williams said that he has told J.J. Abrams that he will do EPISODE IX next year. "I would very much like to complete that," Williams said. With that, John Williams will have scored three complete STAR WARS trilogies in the span of over forty years, during which he gave us some of cinema's most iconic themes.

As John Williams will soon be approaching his 86th birthday, it wouldn't be out of order to wonder just how much longer he wants to stay in the composing game, but Williams said that he has no plans to retire. "I don’t think you can retire from writing," Williams said. "I feel very lucky, and the work that I do doesn’t depend on much. If your vision’s still good, and your hands — I have no arthritis in my hands and I play the piano very easily — I don’t think there’s any reason to deprive oneself of the fun of working. Music is so rewarding." Nicely put. In addition to STAR WARS: EPISODE IX, Williams will also be composing the main theme for SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY, with John Powell tackling the rest of the score.

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI provided John Williams with another opportunity to amaze us with his work, and the composer says that working with Rian Johnson on the film was "the highlight of the highlights." Pulling from forty years worth of STAR WARS themes, Williams also composed new themes for Rose (Kelly Marie Tran), new locations, and "music for some of the battle scenes and a lot of interstitial connecting material," but Williams had the most fun with the Canto Bight casino music. "There were guys pulling out plastic trumpets and dog-chew toys to be used as plungers," THE LAST JEDI writer/director Rian Johnson said. "John was like a little kid that day." All of this music required an orchestra of 101, the 64-voice Los Angeles Master Chorale, and 11 days of recording from December 2016 to June 2017.

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI is still playing in theaters.