JJ Abrams: John Williams will score new Star Wars film

1 May 2013, 10:27 | Updated: 1 May 2013, 15:56

John Williams will write the soundtrack for the new Star Wars film, according to director JJ Abrams, speaking at a Berlin press conference.

After much speculation about who will compose the new Star Wars soundtracks (the first film is due in 2015), director JJ Abrams has confirmed that he believes John Williams will be on scoring duty.

Speaking at press conference in Berlin for the new Star Trek sequel, Abrams was asked if his regular composer of choice Michael Giacchino was on board to do Star Wars as well. He replied: "For Star Wars, it's very early days to know, but I believe going forward that John Williams will be doing that film because apparently he was there long before I was."

He also paid tribute to Michael Giacchino's ongoing work on his films, describing him as "an incredible composer… he is brilliant."

Star Wars expert and contributor to Jedi News James Burns commented on the news: "We’re delighted that they’re going back to John Williams for Episode VII.  His music plays a pivotal role in the events of all Star Wars films and we think it would be very daunting for anybody else to step into his shoes."

Speculating on what a new Williams-composed soundtrack would sound like, Burns continued: "We think we’ll hear cues from the original films as well as new motifs for new characters. I think Williams will come to this afresh as there’s no expectation of what the story will be; we all knew that Episode III had to end with a fight between Anakin and Obi-Wan on a lava planet. Episode VII is different in that we don’t know what to expect and this gives Williams the opportunity to take the score in any direction he’d like."

The confirmation from Abrams effectively ends months of speculation about who would compose the music for the new Star Wars films. In recent months emerged that Hans Zimmer was to compose the music for the new Superman movie, Man Of Steel, rather than John Williams, who wrote the score for the 1978 original.

You can watch the press conference below (the Star Wars question is around 7 minutes in).