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As thread title really, not going to requote the article as it's a mess of embedded ads and other crap which would take a while to rejig into something of a readable format if I cut and paste.

All indications suggest he isn't retiring totally, he's just stopping SW after he's done Ep IX.

The cynic in me wants to blame Johnson.

I wouldn't blame Johnson. Or rather. not just Johnson. Williams had to score the prequels, too, as well as TFA. On the latest rewatch of AOTC, I could swear the scoring of the worst scenes felt sarcastic. The timing, the call-backs, the inappropriate bombasticity...Williams was jaded.

He might be starting to feel like he's just repeating himself, it's gotta be getting tiresome at this point.

I don't know why there's any need to blame anyone, he's 86 years old and he's already done nine Star Wars movies. What is left for him to prove? Even under the best of circumstances you would expect him to start winding down his career and consider spending his remaining productive years on new ideas instead of putting out another iteration of the same formula. TBH I'm kind of surprised he signed up for the new movies in the first place.

 Peregrine wrote:
I don't know why there's any need to blame anyone, he's 86 years old and he's already done nine Star Wars movies. What is left for him to prove? Even under the best of circumstances you would expect him to start winding down his career and consider spending his remaining productive years on new ideas instead of putting out another iteration of the same formula. TBH I'm kind of surprised he signed up for the new movies in the first place.

Exactly. He's an old butter now. Time to Party!

As they do the films in blocks of three chance are he just doesn't want to dedicate that many years to another big project at this point in life. He might well want to focus on shorter projects with less pressure over him, plus he might well feel he's "done" all he can or wants with the SW themes and that a fresh take would be a good thing.

At 86 he might also be considering that he doesn't want to take part in big many many year projects as he might not live through it (which isn't a morbid thought just a considerate one - he might well and I hope he still has many many more years in him).

 Azreal13 wrote:

The cynic in me wants to blame Johnson.

Wow.

The man's had a long and incredible career, and he's already devoted a lot of time to Star Wars. I'm sure he just...

Wants to go out on a high note.

Lotta people ITT need new batteries in their sarcasmometer.

Besides, if he was going to part ways from franchises that had taken a dramatic turn for the gak, he wouldn't still be doing the score for the next Indiana Jones film!

 Spinner wrote:

 Azreal13 wrote:

The cynic in me wants to blame Johnson.

Wow.

The man's had a long and incredible career, and he's already devoted a lot of time to Star Wars. I'm sure he just...

Wants to go out on a high note.

An obviously orchestrated pun like that isn't going to score you many points

To be honest, I was under the impression that TLJ was his last, so one more time is one more than I was expecting. Looking forward to that, initially TLJ's score didn't do much for me but listening to it in isolation there's some really clever and unique elements in there...

There's certainly some qualified people waiting in the wings to take over through. Michael Giacchino has proven himself more than capable of innovating on Williams' work on both Rogue One and Jurassic World (not to mention doing some fantastic work of his own, like the last Apes trilogy), and Kevin Kiner has done such a wonderful job across 9 series of Clone Wars/Rebels that he surely deserves a shot at a movie score now.

He did good.

As others said, he's 86. He'll be over 90 years old at the time of star wars 10.

Maybe his quitting will be the signal to finally end the saga, once and for all. These recent last episodes have nothing to do with star wars, they only share the same title.

 Blackie wrote:
As others said, he's 86. He'll be over 90 years old at the time of star wars 10.

Maybe his quitting will be the signal to finally end the saga, once and for all. These recent last episodes have nothing to do with star wars, they only share the same title.

Respectfully disagree. I really enjoyed 7 and especially 8. Looking forward to 9.

 Paradigm wrote:
To be honest, I was under the impression that TLJ was his last, so one more time is one more than I was expecting. Looking forward to that, initially TLJ's score didn't do much for me but listening to it in isolation there's some really clever and unique elements in there...

There's certainly some qualified people waiting in the wings to take over through. Michael Giacchino has proven himself more than capable of innovating on Williams' work on both Rogue One and Jurassic World (not to mention doing some fantastic work of his own, like the last Apes trilogy), and Kevin Kiner has done such a wonderful job across 9 series of Clone Wars/Rebels that he surely deserves a shot at a movie score now.

Agree completely on both points. Say what you will about the prequels and the new trilogy, but the music is still great. As for Giacchino, he's done so much good music already that he seems like a shoo-in to take over once Williams quits. His work in the new Star Trek movies is amazing, and I loved the score from The Incredibles as well. I also enjoyed the music from Clone Wars (haven't seen Rebels unfortunately, waiting for it to show up on Netflix), so Kiner would be an okay choice to take over as well.

The interview, it's quite interesting; definitely not bitter. If anything it seems like he laments the fact that he's old, and can't recapture his relationship with the OT cast.

Yeah, he's nearly 90. We got another SW trilogy out of him - TLJ was gak, but the music wasn't! - give the guy a break. Let him have a rest.

A major part of the Disneyfication of Star Wars is liquidating the connection between the content and specific personalities. The most obvious example was the flagship issue: how do you make a Star Wars movie without George Lucas? Disney has also already released a Star Wars movie not scored by John Williams and will be doing it again a couple of months from now.

The issue here is that Lucas and Williams are people whereas Disney is a corporation. People tell stories but corporations are responsible for managing brands. Williams' "retirement" can probably be rephrased as Disney feeling another contract is impractical and undesirable.

For many of us, Star Wars music is something very specific. But Disney needs Star Wars music to be something that is much more adaptable. In the MCU, this basically means music and sound effects are largely interchangeable (this trend is bigger than the MCU). IMO, the R1 title sounded like knock off Star Wars music - but at least it was a theme, which is more than can be said for most contemporary soundtracks.

Interestingly, the digital (and possibly bluray) release of TLJ is going to have a "dialogue free" track so you can just hear the music.

In the good old days, you could get a version of some popular film with no dialogue or sound effects, and no visuals either.

Literally just the music!

 Manchu wrote:
For many of us, Star Wars music is something very specific. But Disney needs Star Wars music to be something that is much more adaptable. In the MCU, this basically means music and sound effects are largely interchangeable (this trend is bigger than the MCU). IMO, the R1 title sounded like knock off Star Wars music - but at least it was a theme, which is more than can be said for most contemporary soundtracks.

Firstly, I'd separate out music and sound effects. Sound effects in SW are iconic, so much so that you notice them when they're used in other films. Lucasfilm aren't about to abandon their sound library to making something more 'adaptable'. You can even say the same for the MCU when it comes to sound effects (Cap's shield, Thor's hammer and Iron Man's repulsors have very specific sounds).

Music is different. The MCU has (with the odd exception - Avengers main theme, the Winter Soldier score) generic music. This is borne of a penny-pinching Marvel CEO who they have only just (as of Civil War) broken free of. It would appear that recent efforts to create themes (such as the heavy emphasis on the Avengers theme in the new Infinity War trailers, the re-hiring of Alan Silvestri, etc.) that they are trying to correct this.

John Williams retiring isn't a symptom of Disney's changes to SW. It's a symptom the guy being nearly 90 and having already done 8 of the damned things.

And if they want to replace him, they should get Kevin Kiner. His work on Clone Wars and especially Rebels captures the magic of Williams better than any other imitator.

Hans Zimmer takes over the legacy?

Nah. Zimmer's all about soundscapes and atmosphere.

SW is about themes.

To clarify, I wasn't talking about, for example, the hum of lightsabers. I was talking about using "noise" in film scores, including using notes as noise (hence sound effects as soundtrack).

For example, check out this track from the Aliens Covenant OST.

 Manchu wrote:
A major part of the Disneyfication of Star Wars is liquidating the connection between the content and specific personalities. The most obvious example was the flagship issue: how do you make a Star Wars movie without George Lucas? Disney has also already released a Star Wars movie not scored by John Williams and will be doing it again a couple of months from now.

The issue here is that Lucas and Williams are people whereas Disney is a corporation. People tell stories but corporations are responsible for managing brands. Williams' "retirement" can probably be rephrased as Disney feeling another contract is impractical and undesirable.

Sure thing Disney can be blamed from lots of stuff, but lets get real.
If Disney really had such plans, they would not have bothered getting back so many of the original actors, or John Williams or Lawrence Kasdan, in the first place.
Also, after the prequels disasters, Lucas' name on the Star Wars movie is hardly so big of a draw anymore.

I find it really hilarious that some people are NOW presenting Lucasfilm as some sort of un-commercialized paragon of artistic integrity!

Whoa whoa whoa - I am definitely NOT making the argument that original LucasFilm is any less cynical than Disney-assimilated LucasFilm. After all:



And long before that:



What I am arguing is, Disney is in the process of "digesting" Star Wars into a more malleable brand divorced from specific personalities.

And increasingly divorced of its original characters...