As Shawn Levy prepares to leave his mark on the Star Wars franchise, the director has enlisted “a maestro” to compose the movie’s score.
The Star Wars: Starfighter director recently revealed that 15x Oscar nominee Thomas Newman will score the upcoming installment, which is set to premiere in theaters on May 28, 2027 in the United States. Deadline has reached out to Lucasfilm.
“I know, bro. I don’t know if that’s public, so now it is. Yeah, I think we’re breaking news here,” he enthusiastically said on the On Film…with Kevin McCarthy podcast. “You don’t understand. If you ask me to name my favorite scores, five of the top 10 are Tom Newman: Shawshank, Road to Perdition, Nemo, American Beauty. The guy is a maestro.
Levy continued, “And I was thinking about this movie and what I need the music to be, because it wants to be sort of classically inspired. But no, it’s not gonna be remixes of Williams cues. It may be inspired by some of that, but I knew that I needed a big-hearted movie score from a composer, who like John Williams, doesn’t shy away from themes.”
Williams scored George Lucas‘ original Star Wars (1977), the music of which has since become synonymous with the franchise.
“So, I called up Tom Newman. You don’t understand, I’m a fan,” added Levy. “And I said, ‘Hey, it’s Shawn Levy. Would you ever consider—?’ And he said, ‘Send me the script, and describe your vision.’ And I did both those things, and it was yes. And I’m so stoked. … I’m so excited about it.”
A standalone film outside the Skywalker saga, Starfighter is set five years after Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker (2019). Penned by Jonathan Tropper, the movie stars Ryan Gosling, Matt Smith, Mia Goth, Aaron Pierre, Simon Bird, Jamael Westman, Daniel Ings, Flynn Gray and Amy Adams.
