Despite being less than six months away from release, we still don’t know a hell of a lot about the upcoming “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” We have a short teaser, but that doesn’t give much information at all, other than the fact that all your favorites are coming back for this finale of the Skywalker Saga. But now, thanks to John Williams’ brother, we do know that ‘Rise of Skywalker’ isn’t going to be a short affair.
Speaking with the folks at Scoring Arts, Don Williams, brother of famed composer John Williams and a musician that has performed on the scores for many of his brother’s best works, gave an update on the status of the highly-anticipated film, particularly with the run-time of the Lucasfilm behemoth.
“John’s started up with another ‘Star Wars,’” said the musician. “He’s got 135 minutes worth of music to write so that kinda tells you how long the film is.”
Obviously, the total length of the film can’t be determined by how many minutes the score plays. While 135 minutes seems to be about right for the length of a “Star Wars” film, the odds are that ‘Rise’ is longer, as there will be scenes without much music at all. And 135 minutes, even if that is an accurate run-time would still just be about average for the series. The longest film in the ‘Star Wars’ canon is ‘The Last Jedi,’ which clocks in at 150 minutes.
That being said, Don Williams wants you to know that the film will be chock full of new music, as well as some of your favorite themes. Correction – ALL of your favorite themes.
“It is top to bottom music,” Williams said. “We’ve done four days and we just scratched the surface. I think we’ve got something like 34 minutes in the can at this point.”
He continued, “But I can tell you that every theme that you’ve heard is going to be compiled into this last effort. Leia, Yoda, ‘Phantom,’ Darth, all of it is going to be in there. And in his usual style, he hides them. You gotta go look for them. ”
As mentioned, the fact that John Williams is planning on including everything, including the kitchen sink, with his ‘Rise of Skywalker’ score again points to the fact that Lucasfilm and director J.J. Abrams are crafting the true end to a huge story that has spanned decades. Hopefully, the end also gives fans one more incredible ‘Star Wars’ score from Williams.