John Powell Begins Recording The Score To Solo: A Star Wars Story

About two and a half months ahead of the film’s release, work on recording Solo: A Star Wars Story‘s score has finally commenced. John Powell (Shrek, The Bourne Identity) takes the reins of the orchestra.

 

As the last couple of pick-up shots for Solo are being completed, work is underway to score the second standalone Star Wars spin-off film. Both director Ron Howard and Powell have shared social media posts indicating that work on writing the music has been completed and that the soundtrack is all but ready to be recorded:

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/johnpowellmusic/photos/a.1918323288390964.1073741830.1689850014571627/2017023568520935

 

*the recording is happening at the Abbey Road Studios.

 

As mentioned above on the Twitter post, John Williams finally created a theme for the character of Han for this movie, which Powell will orchestrate. This marks the first – and quite possibly, only – time that Williams contributed to a Star Wars soundtrack that he did not compose himself.

 

Recording relatively close to a deadline isn’t exactly anything new, although compared to The Last Jedi – which was scored months in advance after wrapping production fairly early on – there’s quite a gap in comparing the two productions. It’s thankfully not a very long process, so Powell should be done with time to spare. Hopefully, Solo comes out well – it definitely looks like they’ve nailed the way a Star Wars movie should look, and I think it’s likely that Powell will capture the way a Star Wars movie should sound.

 

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Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.

Grant Davis (Pomojema)

Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.

31 thoughts on “John Powell Begins Recording The Score To Solo: A Star Wars Story

  • March 11, 2018 at 4:16 am
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    The music is already scored! They have began recording…. If they were scoring the music now it would be impossible to have it completed and recorded by May.

    • March 11, 2018 at 4:31 am
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      Okay, didn’t know the terminology. Let’s fix that…

      – Pomojema

      • March 12, 2018 at 11:01 am
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        This page is just awesome! Great work you guys, best site in the galaxy for SW news!

    • March 11, 2018 at 5:17 am
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      Yes, at first I was thinking: They just started on the score? Then I was was just confused. First sentence still needs to be changed from “composing” to “recording.”

      • March 11, 2018 at 6:02 am
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        I have now applied that fix as well. Thanks for the help!

        – Pomojema

  • March 11, 2018 at 4:23 am
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    Listening to the HTTYD score right now if its anything like that its going to amazing

    • March 11, 2018 at 6:28 am
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      Agreed. Used to listen to a John Williams station on Pandora a lot and Powell’s score for How to Train Your Dragon came up a lot. Lots of similarity between Williams and Powell. The future of Star Wars film scores is in good hands.

    • March 11, 2018 at 3:16 pm
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      That score is a masterpiece

  • March 11, 2018 at 4:47 am
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    I wonder if there are any new bantha themes.

    • March 11, 2018 at 7:28 pm
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      Don’t you mean banthemes ?

      • March 14, 2018 at 6:42 am
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        Banning any kind of music seems like a dangerous road to go down 😉

  • March 11, 2018 at 7:13 am
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    Can’t wait to hear new SW music…..and from Powell no less. At some point, I would like to see Desplat again (hopefully there are no burned bridges with Lucasfilm), but Kiner and Giacchino should be getting the nods in future works I would assume as well.

  • March 11, 2018 at 6:49 pm
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    Please use the London Symphony Orchestra, the music hasn’t sounded right since Ep7.

    • March 11, 2018 at 10:34 pm
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      Harsh, given how little time he had. It was literally a rush job. Under the circumstances he didn’t do badly, especially since he’d be compared to the best film composer of the past 45 years.

      • March 11, 2018 at 10:58 pm
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        Yes

      • March 11, 2018 at 11:12 pm
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        You missed the point — I’m not being harsh at all. If Big G is composing the score in less than a month, that’s a red flag for the film that its schedule is so tight. I’ll reiterate — he’s fine for what he is… a stunt composer — he admittedly thrives on it. But for Star Wars films, the artist must have more time, and I want the score to be way more memorable than Michael Giacchino’s derivative work . Powell is decent, and I think he’s been given a fair amount of time to work with.

        • March 11, 2018 at 11:43 pm
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          What the hell is a “stunt composer”? Do you think he takes on all his jobs at the last minute????

          • March 11, 2018 at 11:57 pm
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            Not all, but some – he has a reputation for fast work. I see it as if this guy shows up at your house…

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP4lrVIpbvo

            If that’s the case, your situation just might be a bit effed up. That’s nothing against Mr. Wolf — he’s great at what he does, but you really don’t want to ever be in a predicament where you need to utilize his talents.

            Composing a score for a major franchise film like Star Wars in 4 weeks is a *stunt*. Good for him for pulling it off, but I hope it never happens to any SW composer again.

    • March 12, 2018 at 5:45 am
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      Yeah that guy who has two Grammys in his hands and a Oscar back home. That guy sucks.

    • March 12, 2018 at 6:00 pm
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      I like MG a whole lot. But I mostly like his earlier work in video games (Medal of Honor was incredible). He’s doing so many movies these days that they tend to blend together with little passion. R1 wasn’t a perfect score but he did admirably under the time crunch. I don’t care for much for Desplat’s scores. I believe a rushed Giacchino score is better than what Desplat might have done. R1 has grown on me. I think he needed to lean on the Imperial march just a little bit more. Like not love.

    • March 14, 2018 at 7:09 pm
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      Here, here. This is probably the most even-keeled/accurate comment about MG I’ve read. Phrased better than what I can muster.

      Clutchfoot’s mention of Medal of Honor: Frontline is on point. I remember thinking that the scoring for that was superb and the Northwest Sinfonia did a hell of a job – the music carries the right amount of tone and emotion throughout.

      Unfortunately, virtually anything else I’ve heard from MG following Frontline has been nothing short of lackluster. I think the only scores I’ve really enjoyed has been his scores for Star Trek as I feel like his style really lends itself to those films. And maybe Mission: Impossible III… But I honestly think that if you gave him the time that Desplat had for Rogue One, you would have come out with a similar sounding score. I don’t think any amount of time would change his sound for the better. I just think he writes really hokey scores and that’s fine for the people that enjoy his music. Although the punny and word play titles I could certainly do without. It’s just flat out dumb and it’s a gag that gets old immediately. But ultimately, I just don’t see his style fitting for anything Star Wars. Rogue One was evidence enough for me.

  • March 12, 2018 at 3:06 am
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    learning from the masters. I will never get stressed again about sheduled work, rather I´ll start working at the tip of the deadline

  • March 12, 2018 at 5:36 am
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    I didn’t want a Solo film TBH, but i will probably pay the £9 for a ticket. It’s just that this Solo is not much younger than the ANH Solo but they have different faces. Its completely different to ROTS ObiWan and ANH Obiwan because of the age difference. Over decades your face changes so I could genuinely see Ewan McGregor as a younger Alec Guiness. Solo will feel really weird in that sense. Honestly, I would have preferred an ObiWan film or even a KanjiKlub or Trillia Massacre film to a Solo film

    • March 12, 2018 at 5:57 am
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      To me it depends how he plays Han. The guy doesn’t look like Solo much- they could’ve given him the same haircut at least. In the new Trek I can’t really take any of the cast as their character except for Spock- he kinda looks like a younger Spock &he has acting Spock down to perfection. The rest are all like reinventions of their character.

      • March 12, 2018 at 6:07 am
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        That’s a good point. It also depends on his acting. Maybe he could pull it off. I also agree with the hair thing. In Trek especially the new Bones looks nothing like the first one (although the accent is good). Also the new Uhura looks nothing like the first one. I agree with you on Spock. It helps that his hair, eyebrows and ears are exactly the same lol

    • March 12, 2018 at 3:44 pm
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      £9??? In my area they have a cheap Tuesdays, where it’s only £3.

      (They have a buy one get one free at dominoes on Tuesdays too – making it my favourite day of the week)

      I agree on Solo, I just can’t process the different faces. Couldn’t they have tried to cast someone even a little more similar than that?

    • March 14, 2018 at 6:47 am
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      I didn’t want a Solo film but I’m looking forward to it now. I still really don’t want a Kenobi film, I’m sure they’d involve Luke in some way and he’s meant to have had a boring, uneventful life until IV.

      I’m probably biased because the prequels were so bad but I’m not sure I ever warmed to McGregor as Kenobi either, but maybe that just means he needs a chance in the role with a better director & script

    • March 13, 2018 at 8:23 am
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      Yep, we pointed this out in the article since some people thought it was London.

  • March 14, 2018 at 6:37 am
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    I really liked the music in the trailer, that pulsing, minimal stuff. I’d love if he includes something like that

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