Alexandre Desplat Scoring STAR WARS: ROGUE ONE

I just rewatched the original Star Wars trilogy, and one thing that particularly struck me this time around is just how huge of an impact John Williams' score has on the overall feeling of the movies. His work is a masterclass of iconic themes, and I'm thrilled that the composer is returning to that universe once again in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. And though Williams' music goes hand in hand with Star Wars, it looks like he's only going to be contributing to the numbered saga (Episode VII, etc.) because a different composer is set to work on the first standalone film, recently titled Star Wars: Rogue One.

The Playlist points us to a report from Film Music Reporter, who noticed that Desplat appeared on a French radio program called Radio Classique’s Culture Club and revealed that he'll be providing the score for the movie, which will reunite him with Godzilla director Gareth Edwards. No other details have been announced yet, but Desplat is obviously a tremendously talented guy (he won an Oscar for his work on The Grand Budapest Hotel, beating himself since he was also nominated for The Imitation Game) and I'm interested to hear his contributions to the Star Wars universe.

I'm a little surprised that Michael Giacchino wasn't tapped for this job, since he's the heir apparent to Williams and there were rumors that he'd be reuniting with his Star Trek director J.J. Abrams to score The Force Awakens, but we're about to see a deluge of Star Wars films over the next decade and beyond, so I'm sure he'll have his opportunity if he wants it. Star Wars: Rogue One hits theaters on December 16th, 2016, and you can watch a video about what the storyline might be right here.