‘Star Wars’ Composer John Williams Not Retiring From Scoring Films After All
Shortly after the release of his score for The Fabelmans, it has just been revealed that John Williams will continue writing film scores after finishing work on the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which he previously announced would be the last movie that he would write music for.
During a 90-minute conversation with Steven Spielberg moderated by Variety‘s Jon Burlingame (via Entertainment Weekly), John Williams has revealed that he has reversed course on his decision to retire from composing for movies, a move that he announced sixth months ago. At 90 years of age, his age was a factor in his initial decision to scale back on his music-writing efforts (as he had planned to continue work on smaller projects), but he has since decided that he loves his work too much to simply stop scoring entire theatrical films. Williams explained that he wants to keep working with Steven Spielberg, who he has collaborated with on 29 films over 50 years. Here’s what he had to say about what made him change his mind:
“I’ll stick around for awhile. I can’t retire from music; a day without music is a mistake. One thing Steven isn’t is a man you can say no to. I just found out he’s not retiring!”
John Williams has been cited by Star Wars franchise creator George Lucas as “the special sauce” that has helped the long-running multimedia franchise come together just right, with Williams composing the full scores to the nine movies of the Skywalker Saga, along with all five movies of the Indiana Jones series. However, it does not appear that he has decided to reverse course on doing scores for entire Star Wars films as of right now. It is more likely that, if he has any other Star Wars themes to compose, then it will be individual compositions, as was the case for his decision to work on the main theme for the Disney Plus series Obi-Wan Kenobi, the film Solo: A Star Wars Story, or the Disneyland/Disney World theme park expansion Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
Beyond Star Wars and Indiana Jones, John Williams has had an incredibly prolific body of work, the likes of which include Fiddler on the Roof, The Poseidon Adventure, Earthquake, The Towering Inferno, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman: The Movie, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Empire of the Sun, Home Alone, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, War of the Worlds, Munich, War Horse, Lincoln, The Post, and now The Fabelmans. Williams’s work in film and television has netted him deserved recognition with five Academy Awards, four Golden Globes, three Emmys, seven British Academy Film Awards, and eight Saturn Awards, as well as countless nominations.
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.
