Alexandre Desplat will become the first composer outside of John Williams to score a live action Star Wars film, providing the music for the upcoming spinoff film Star Wars: Rogue One.
Desplat broke the news himself on the French podcast Radio Classique’s Culture Club (via The Playlist). Desplat previously worked with Rogue One director Gareth Edwards on last summer’s Godzilla.
It is not known why Williams won’t be taking the musical reins on the spinoff. He is no stranger to completing work on multiple films within a year and even this year besides Star Wars: The Force Awakens he is also scoring Bridge Of Spies for Steven Spielberg. There could be an element of time involved, with Episode VIII being moved forward six months to May 2017, not giving him as much time to prepare if he was just rolling out of scoring Rogue One, with its December 16, 2016 release date. As the composer just turned 83 last month, perhaps he would prefer to just score the three installments of the main trilogy and have the remaining time to focus on other projects. Whatever the reason, Desplat has some big shoes to fill.
