While Baby Yoda took the internet by storm the second his face hit the screen in Disney+’s The Mandalorian, there’s another defining aspect of the groundbreaking bounty hunting series that some might argue is just as rad: The music.
Coming off his Oscar win for Black Panther, composer Ludwig Göransson had the daunting task of crafting a unique score for The Mandalorian that would be just as distinctive as John Williams’ Star Wars theme, but still paid homage to that classic, bombastic orchestra sound that fans have loved for decades. What Göransson came up with was an immediately memorable blend of baroque recorder solos, drums, and a full-on sympathy that seamlessly mashed together the spaghetti Western and sci-fi. And now that sound is featured in a new music video featuring Göransson as he plays the various instruments that created the music of The Mandalorian.
For fans wanting to go deeper into the music, episode seven of Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian is entirely focused on Göransson’s process as he worked closely with showrunners Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni to create an all-new Star Wars sound that moved the franchise forward while still honoring the past. Here’s what Göransson told io9 back in November:
My original thoughts and my original themes, I think, were a little bit more tied to the Star Wars sound as we know it. But Jon was like, “We have time.” So he wanted me to experiment and see how far we could take it. And if there were some sounds that he was reacting to, I was immediately like, “I’ll keep developing that sound.” So I think I started more in the vein of the Star Wars sound that we used to and then Jon kept wanting to take it to new places. And I think in the end, looking at it, he knew what he was doing.
As if developing a brand new sound for Star Wars wasn’t enough, Göransson recently finished scoring the upcoming Christopher Nolan blockbuster Tenet, and he’s hard at work on the second season of The Mandalorian, which is still on track for an October 2020 premiere.
(Via Star Wars)