Listen: Full 'Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge' Theme Song Composed By John Williams
Legendary composer John Williams is returning to provide the score for J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker later this year, but first, he's given us a new track that will play in Batuu, the Outer Rim planet outpost that serves as the setting for Disney's Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge theme park land.
We've previously heard a snippet of this Galaxy's Edge theme song, but now the full track, which is referred to as the "Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge Symphonic Suite," is available to download and stream on several platforms. Listen to the full song below.
Galaxy's Edge Theme Song
John Williams is just the best, isn't he? He's the man who scored all of our childhoods, and who pushed the original Star Wars over the edge into masterpiece territory with his iconic compositions and memorable motifs. Williams is easily the world's best known film composer, so he could have chosen to skip the chance to make music for a theme park land and nobody would have thought lesser of him. But his passion for this franchise runs deep, and you can hear it in this track, a song that has aspects of wonder, excitement, and mystery – feelings and emotions he's been able to conjure with his music for more than 60 years.
Listen to the way the song changes from brass to strings at the :20 mark. It sounds like the perfect music to accompany the experience of walking into Galaxy's Edge for the first time, taking in all of the jaw-dropping details of the park around you. But that's not where you'll hear this track in the park.
Early reports have suggested that we'll only be hearing this song "within the attractions," unlike typical theme park tracks which blare from hidden speakers as you walk around. Remember that Galaxy's Edge is meant to be a totally immersive experience, and hearing a fully-orchestrated track like this as you're walking around Batuu would raise questions about where the music was coming from and why the denizens of the outpost would be playing it. Meanwhile, guests will be able to enter Oga's Cantina to hear DJ R3X serving up alien-style beats reminiscent of the song heard in the original film's cantina on Tatooine.
So expect to hear this music as you're swooping through the skies during Millennium Falcon: Smuggler's Run, and maybe even during Rise of the Resistance as well. (Of course, there's always the chance that we could hear recycled versions of tracks from the movies during the rides, too.) If this YouTube embed isn't enough for you, the song is available to download on iTunes, Amazon Music, and Google Play and to stream at places like Spotify and Pandora.
Soak it in, people. This is likely going to be one of the last major pieces of Star Wars music we hear from John Williams, who has indicated he's stepping away from the franchise after The Rise of Skywalker. Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge opens at Disneyland on May 31, 2019, and at Walt Disney World's Hollywood Studios on August 29, 2019.