Tonight I was in a conversation about Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, the Star Wars themed land coming to Disney Parks in 2019. My sources are saying John Williams and Michael Giacchino will be writing and scoring the theme park’s music for rides, attractions, and other types of source music. It sounds like there is some sort of collaborative effort between Williams and Giacchino on the content. I don’t know if Williams is just contributing a theme or a lot more than that. It isn’t exactly clear who is doing what at this point so I do not want to overstate anything other than we are getting new music for Galaxy’s Edge from both Williams and Giacchino who will be bringing the melodic side of the park to life.

Imagine Williams scoring the Falcon ride and Giacchino bringing the banging music of “Escape The First Order” to our ears. Who will bring Oga’s Cantina to life or the exotic “zoo?” The music we are likely to hear around Black Spire is going to be top notch based on this rumor and really it would have been strange to expect anything less considering how all out they’re going to make Galaxy’s Edge a quality reality for theme park visitors.

Michael Giacchino did an excellent job on the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story score. Originally Alexandre Desplat was going to take charge of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story but he was not given the opportunity and an already super busy Giacchino took over those duties. In a very short time, Giacchino turned out a really solid body of work for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story that is holding up rather well a few years after release. I really would like to see what Giacchino can bring to Star Wars when not under the gun on a time crunch because the score for that film has only grown on me with time. With that in mind, I will gladly take a Giacchino scored theme park, especially since his work on Star Tours II was really fun. Taking his work on Star Tours II and Rogue One and it becomes clear he’s very good at doing Star Wars music in various mediums and with different tonal qualities in that he can be really playful or very serious with equal competency.

John Williams has alluded to the idea of retiring, at least from Star Wars after J.J. Abrams’s Star Wars: Episode IX is released and the Skywalker Saga is concluded with nine film scores from the Maestro himself. Last year we were awarded a bonus piece of Williams’ work when he contributed Han Solo’s theme to John Powell’s excellent Solo: A Star Wars Story score. John Williams is obviously the best film composer who ever lived and any more contributions to Star Wars we can get from Williams is worth savoring. If I had to guess I would imagine he is contributing a few themes and Giacchino doing the larger body of work.

Like I said, file this one as a rumor for now, but if this pans out, the music for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge will feature a score by John Williams and Michael Giacchino. Many of us Star Wars fans never considered the possibility we would ever purchase a soundtrack release from a theme park and now I’m dying to hear it. I’m sure Disney fans are used to it but they can sign me up for the vinyl deluxe edition with bonus tracks and outtakes. I’m all in if this rumor pans out.

2019 is going to be the biggest Star Wars year of all time and fans of the music of the series are likely going to have a lot to appreciate.