Streaming : Obi-Wan Kenobi

[General Maximus]

The legendary John Williams is back to help write the music for Obi-Wan Kenobi. I can't wait to hear it.

The world of “Star Wars” returns in a big way this month with “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” a Disney+ series that sees Ewan McGregor reprising his role from George Lucas’ prequel trilogy. But for many, it just wouldn’t be “Star Wars” without John Williams.

The Oscar winner’s iconic music still defines the massive science fiction franchise, and even as he steps back and lets younger composers work on “Star Wars” projects, his presence continues to be felt.

Williams is hard at work on “Indiana Jones 5” and “The Fabelmans,” so he was unavailable to score the show. Composing duties fell to “Loki” and “Paddington” composer Natalie Holt, who recently spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the process of working on the series. It turns out that Williams couldn’t completely stay away from “Star Wars,” and still found time to contribute some music to the upcoming series.

“We didn’t collaborate, but I did get to use his theme,” Holt said when asked about working with Williams. “He didn’t have very long and it was quite last minute whether he’d have time or not. But he really wanted to write that theme because he was the one character that he didn’t write the theme for in the original movie. So I think he had this feeling that he wanted to complete the challenge.”

Due to scheduling conflicts, Williams only had a short period of time to write Obi-Wan’s theme, but the 90-year-old composer delivered under pressure.

“I think he had two weeks and he came on board and wrote the Obi theme and a suite, which is the main title, and then a few variations of how the Obi theme can work,” she said. “That was what he had time to give the project, and it was just a gift. It’s so perfect and in a way, once I had that Obi theme, it set the tentpoles up for the project.”

https://www.indiewire.com/2022/05/ob...me-1234723167/

Originally Posted by General Maximus

The legendary John Williams is back to help write the music for Obi-Wan Kenobi. I can't wait to hear it.



https://www.indiewire.com/2022/05/ob...me-1234723167/

It’s an interesting piece of movie trivia that the Saga films don’t contain a discrete theme for the character of Obi-Wan Kenobi. My guess would be because in the original film, within the principal ensemble he’s nevertheless (whisper it) a secondary character and in the sequels his brief appearances support bigger themes like the force or the Skywalker family. I suspect that Williams will then have felt that composing a theme for him for the prequels would have been too jarring, because musically he was attempting to carry the story from its untold beginning to the point we all know so well. When watched in chronological story order, the sudden lack of an Obi-Wan theme in IV would be jarring.

What’s allowed him to compose an Obi-Wan theme now is the fact that there has been no serious attempt to make the new Disney+ shows sound like the saga films, even though they’ve bent over backwards to make them look like them. From the news report it’s clear that this series isn’t going to sound like the saga either. Its composer is Natalie Holt, and she hasn’t collaborated with Williams on this, she has just received a basic theme composition, and some ideas for how its elements might be woven into the score. What she has received isn’t going to have been orchestrated either, and Williams won’t have had any input into that process when it came to it.

I don’t mean to give you a flaccid realism factor, but one thing this *doesn’t* mean is that the Obi-Wan series score is going to sound like Star Wars.

[General Maximus]

I would love it if he composed something meaningful like Luke had the binary sunset and Yoda has his own theme. Obi-wan deserves it.

[Stephen]

I'm still amazed that Williams is still working at the age of 90. That's just insane.

[General Maximus]

Yeah and good for him. His work has always been a labour of love and I imagine he will want to keep doing it for as long as possible. I didn't realise he was so old, for some reason I had it in my head that he was 83. It sounds very selfish but I am dreading the day he passes away because he can never been replaced. I want to transfer his consciousness into an AI or android so he can live forever. Or.................we need some soul hunters from B5....

[Jaymoss]

Excellent first 2 episodes. Not read anything about it so was totally surprised by the direction it is going in

I see it as a metaphor for life. You know the ending but can still enjoy the journey

[heero_yuy]

Looking forwrd to viewing this evening. Two episodes sitting on the media server ready.

Excellent start, you gotta love little Leia.

Shame its only six episodes.
Oddly, the other four appear to be on Wednesdays, not Friday.

[Stephen]

It was originally meant to release on Wednesday 25th May. But they delayed it to Friday to coincide with Celebrations event. That is why 2 episodes were out today as an extra for them delaying it by 2 days.

[heero_yuy]

Good start. Looking forward to the rest.

[Jaymoss]

Originally Posted by Paul

Excellent start, you gotta love little Leia.

Shame its only six episodes.
Oddly, the other four appear to be on Wednesdays, not Friday.

Got to say she embodies her very well indeed. Excellent little actress

Kids not doing what they are told cause so much trouble in cinema and tv don't they hahaha

Very good so far. It’s handy that the actors from the prequel trilogy are all now looking the right age for a story set at this point … Euan MacGregor is now a very convincing substitute for Alec Guinness. And I agree, young Leia was quite the revelation. I’d assumed the story was going to be all about morose Ben Kenobi watching Luke from afar, but we have some action to get our teeth into already.

[Pierre]

Loved the scene in the bar with the Grand Inquisitor, riffing on the scene from Inglorious Basterds.. swap Jew Hunter for Jedi Hunter - hey presto!

[Jaymoss]

Best Vader scene ever this week imo

[denphone]

The fifth episode was absolutely magnificent.

Mind you others might disagree.