John Williams will score Indiana Jones 5 & Star Wars Episode VIII

Last night, the American Film Institute held a red carpet event honoring legendary film composer John Williams (Jaws, Harry Potter, Superman) with a lifetime achievement award. The 84-year-old Williams, whose work on all four Indiana Jones films as well as all seven Star Wars Saga films are career-defining, took the opportunity to assure the world he would be back for Lucasfilm‘s next installments of both franchises.

“If I can do it, I certainly will,” Williams confirmed to Variety of his commitment to do the music for Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: Episode VIII, currently in the home stretch of filming. “I told Kathy Kennedy I’m happy to do it, but the real reason is, I didn’t want anybody else writing music for Daisy Ridley.”

Meanwhile, frequent collaborator Steven Spielberg (whose Williams-scored The BFG opens this summer) told Access Hollywood’s Scott Mantz that the man who wrote the instantly recognizable Indiana Jones theme would once again crack the whip on the orchestra for Indiana Jones 5.

So there you have it. As Williams proved with last year’s sweeping, brilliant score for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, he is in no danger of slowing down creatively, and now we’ll have at least one more Star Wars score with the hope that he can round out the saga with Episode IX as well, not to mention one more rollicking Indy soundtrack.

Indiana Jones 5 will see both Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg return to the franchise. Screenwriter David Koepp is set to pen the script with the movie set for a July 19, 2019 release date. Franchise veterans Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall will produce.

Star Wars: Episode VIII, which is written and directed by Rian Johnson and continues the storylines introduced in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, welcomes back cast members Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Lupita Nyong’o, Oscar Isaac, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Gwendoline Christie, and Andy Serkis. New cast members will include Academy Award winner Benicio Del Toro, Academy Award nominee Laura Dern, and talented newcomer Kelly Marie Tran.

Produced by Kathleen Kennedy and Ram Bergman and executive produced by J.J. Abrams, Jason McGatlin, and Tom Karnowski, Star Wars: Episode VIII is scheduled for release December 15, 2017.

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(Photo Credit: WENN.com)