Star Wars Composer John Williams Will Score Episode 8

John Williams will return to the Star Wars saga to score Episode VIII. Williams has written the soundtrack for every movie in the series since 1977, and the veteran composer has announced that he will be back for the next part.

Williams confirmed the news during a concert in Boston this weekend. As Masslive.com reports, he told the audience that he would begin work on the Episode VIII score "in a few weeks," once he had seen an early cut of the movie.

Williams explained that he accepted producer Kathleen Kennedy's offer "because he was enchanted by actress Daisy Ridley's portrayal of Rey and does not want another composer scoring her scenes."

While Williams has worked on all the ongoing Stars Wars saga films, the upcoming spinoff Rogue One will feature a score from Oscar-winning composer Alexandre Desplat. He previously confirmed he would return for Indiana Jones 5 and expressed interest in doing the same with Star Wars.

Episode VIII finished shooting last month. At the Star Wars Celebration Europe convention in July, director Rian Johnson talked about how this will be the movie where "we start zooming in on the characters and getting to the heart of them, challenging them, and pushing them deeper."

Star Wars Episode VIII arrives in theaters on December 15, 2017. It also stars John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Mark Hamill, Adam Driver, Laura Dern, Domhnall Gleeson, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels, Gwendoline Christie, and Andy Serkis.