John Williamsis set to return to theStar Warsuniverse to compose the theme for theHan Solo movie. Williams has scored all 8 of the major movies in the franchise and this will be his first time doing one of the spin-offs. It was announced last July that John Powell (Bourneseries,Shrek, andKung Fu Panda) was scoring the upcomingHan Solomovie. Lucasfilm said at the time,, “The untitled Han Solo movie will be scored in the style of the originalStar Warsmovies but retain Powell’s distinctive voice.”
John Williams recently spoke about his plans to hand over a theme forSoloto Ron Howard and John Powell. According to the 85-year old composer, if Howard and Powell are happy with the theme, Powell will then work off of it to compose the score. In addition, Williams spoke of his excitement to be working with John Powell. He had this to say.
“The present plan is that I’m writing a theme for Han Solo, and John Powell is going to write the score, which he’ll do brilliantly. His assignment is something I’m very happy about. What I will do is offer this to John, and to (director) Ron Howard, and if all parties are happy with it, then I will be happy… John Powell will complete the score. He will write all the rest of the themes and all of the other material, which I’m going to be very anxious to hear.”
The news of John Williams returning to theStar Wars universeis exciting for fans and is a good move by Lucasfilm. Williams' distinct style is instantly recognizable and synonymous with theStar Warsbrand and many fans were upset that he did not compose any of the music forRogue One. Michael Giacchino composed the music for the spin-off and though he took a lot from John Williams' original score fromA New Hope, it did not work out as well as if Williams had done the work himself. Several fans recalled that the score forRogue Onedeviated too much from the original work of John Williams.
Alden Ehrenreich will star as ayounger Han Soloand earlier this week we were treated to what looked like our first official images of the actor as the iconic character, but Lucasfilm and Disney denied that they were official images. However, a closer look at the art reveals some fundamental changes as well as some of the same clothing that had been leaked from set photos while the movie was still filming, leading many to believe that the images came from an official source. The way that Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, and Chewbacca were placed in the image did look peculiar, but the sources are believed to be real.
TheHan Solo productionhas been a bit rocky for Lucasfilm with original directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller ousted from the project after they had already spent quite a bit of time working on it. Ron Howard was brought in to take over the movie and ended up spending about the same amount of time in total with principal photography and reshoots. As it stands, fans are quite interested to see what the finished project looks like, as Warner Bros.‘Justice Leaguesuffered from similar issues during development and got torn apart by fans and critics when it came out. Get ready for new petitions calling for theoriginal cut… you may read more about John Williams composing the theme forSolo: A Star Wars StoryviaVariety.
