MOVIES
'Star Wars' Fans Are Going Into Hyperdrive Over John Williams' Score in 'Rise Of Skywalker' Final Trailer
10/22/2019
by
Gil Kaufman
"All hail John Williams."
There are about a million things to freak out over in the final trailer for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker that dropped on Monday night (Oct. 21).
But for a certain subset of Star Warriors it's all about the score. While the two-and-a-half-minute trailer for director J.J. Abrams' final chapter in the nine-episode space saga will give fanatics a lot to dissect from now until its release on Dec. 20, it's the latest re-imagining of legendary composer John Williams' iconic theme that has tongues wagging like Jabba with a chain around his neck.
After creating some of the most beloved scores in film history for George Lucas' space epic, Williams has said this is his final trip into the Star Wars universe and from the sounds of the "re-imagining" of the main theme by trailer composer Blake Robinson, Williams' greatest hit is going out in style. The trailer opens with a chilling theme accomanying Rey (Daisy Ridley) running through the jungle that swells with the addition of some horns, building to a climax with a chorus as the series' latest hero confronts her darkest enemies.
Midway through, after a heart-filling message about friendship from C-3PO, Williams' instantly recognizeable main theme bursts through, trumpets blaring, a tad slower and somehow even more majestic, with an angelic chorus amping up the drama before a slowed-down final swell accompanies the film title floating in space.
Williams recently told CBS News that as far as he understands, this is the end of the Skywalker story, which is a good time for him to "put the bow on the package" of his participation after four decades. "And it'll probably be the end of a sort of thematic flow, which started on the first movie and ended now," he said. "What's wild for me as a composer of Star Wars is this has never happened -- it's my good fortune, the good fortune in the sense that I did the music for the first film. It was this, that, and the other theme. In the second film, I had this, that, and the other theme and two more themes. And so the glossary of things has expanded over all these years."
Check out some of the best fan reactions below as well as the Rise of Skywalker trailer.
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story failed to note that the version of Williams' main theme heard in the trailer was composed by Blake Robinson.
