John Williams is back with new Star Wars music. The 94-year-old composer, who scored the original Star Wars in 1977, created a newly orchestrated score for the Star Wars 50th anniversary, and Lucasfilm debuted it with its 50th anniversary announcement on November 12. The music is part of the original Star Wars returning to theaters on February 19, 2027, in a year that also brings Ahsoka Season 2 on January 20 and Star Wars: Starfighter on May 28.
The new piece is an orchestral medley that moves through familiar Star Wars themes and builds to a big, triumphant finish. Lucasfilm’s video credits it simply: “Orchestrated by the visionary composer John Williams.” It plays under the new black and gold 50th anniversary logo, which will open the February re-release, so the first thing audiences hear in theaters will be new Williams music before the 1977 score they know by heart.
It is hard to overstate what Williams means to Star Wars. His 1977 score won the Academy Award for Best Original Score, and the American Film Institute later named it the greatest American film score of all time. He went on to score all nine Skywalker Saga films through The Rise of Skywalker in 2019, wrote the main theme for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in 2019 and composed the Obi-Wan Kenobi theme in 2022. He turns 95 on February 8, just 11 days before the re-release.
Disney parks fans already hear more of his classic work this year. Disneyland’s Galaxy’s Edge switched to John Williams themes from the first six films when it moved to the original trilogy era, and we laid out whether that music could come to Walt Disney World in our look at what the 50th anniversary could change at Galaxy’s Edge and Star Tours.
More Williams is coming in the anniversary year. On April 2 and 3, Star Wars in Concert: The Skywalker Saga brings his scores from all nine films to the Hollywood Bowl with a live orchestra, hosted by Anthony Daniels. The Bowl hosted the very first official Star Wars concert in November 1977. Here is what is coming to screens, as part of Lucasfilm’s year-long Star Wars 50th anniversary celebration:
- Ahsoka Season 2, Wednesday, January 20: Rosario Dawson returns as Ahsoka Tano on Disney+, with Grand Admiral Thrawn as the threat.
- Star Wars, Friday, February 19: The restored original 1977 film, with Williams’ original score, returns to theaters on thousands of screens, including IMAX 70mm, 70mm, 35mm, 4DX and D-BOX.
- Star Wars: Starfighter, Friday, May 28: Shawn Levy directs Ryan Gosling, Matt Smith, Mia Goth, Aaron Pierre and Amy Adams in an all-new story set in a new era of the galaxy.
We have followed the re-release since Lucasfilm first announced Star Wars was returning to theaters in February 2027, and both Ahsoka Season 2 and Starfighter debuted teasers at D23 2026.
