‘Andor’ Main Theme To Have Different Variations Between Episodes, Says Tony Gilroy
Lucasfilm released earlier this month their production briefing on Andor, a 29-page document available to the press where they detail the most relevant aspects of everything and everyone involved with the upcoming Star Wars series on Disney Plus. In the document, the company confirmed that three-time Oscar nominee Nicholas Britell (Moonlight, Succession) is composing the music for the show.
Gilroy first explained how integral the music is to Star Wars, and how that carried over to Andor, though in new and unexpected ways:
“Music in Star Wars is just absolutely essentially identified with John Williams—I mean, bow down—but we’re going in a whole other direction. We needed an entirely new vocabulary. We’re making a new visual vocabulary, a storytelling vocabulary; a new casting vocabulary, all these things. We’re going to make a new musical vocabulary. Nic Britell was not only available but interested. Nic is just one of the premiere composers of the moment right now. He’s just on fire, and he’s inspired.”
Reports on Britell joining Andor began circulating earlier this year, but it looks like he’s been attached for a long time. In the document, it is said that Britell and Gilroy have been working on the score for two years, long before it was time to get into the recording booth and, from the sound of things, even before filming started. However, as Gilroy explains, it looks like they needed the extra time:
“We both underestimated the amount of work it was going to take. All of a sudden, it turns into this gigantic thing, but it’s been one of the great creative experiences I’ve ever had.”
Andor will have a central theme, Gilroy said, though it will be slightly different from episode to episode:
“One day, I went to Nic’s house, and he played us his theme. I was like, Oh my god! That’s our theme. I called Kathy Kennedy [to say], ‘We have a theme.’
None of the opening sequences are the same, and each variation is a different orchestration, a completely different interpretation of our theme that Nic has done. There’ll be twelve of them in the show. I’m sure people will parse them and figure them out, what he’s done. I think they’re just absolutely beautiful.”
Though no one has confirmed this so far, we may already have had our first glimpse at what Andor will sound like, with the music of the two trailers released so far. They both sound very different from each other and have a musical score that feels fresh and unique to the show. We will have to wait a few more weeks to check out what the score for Andor sounds like, but if Britell’s track record is any indication, we are in for a treat.
Andor will have a three-episode premiere on September 21, before moving to a weekly release. Season 1 will have 12 episodes, while season 2 will begin filming this fall.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
