A new composer is coming to the Star Wars fold. Director of Star Wars: Starfighter, Shawn Levy, has revealed that he is bringing in composer Thomas Newman to score this film. Star Wars: Starfighter will be arriving in theaters on May 28, 2027.
The news was revealed on the On Film…with Kevin McCarthy podcast. “I know, bro. I don’t know if that’s public, so now it is. Yeah, I think we’re breaking news here,” he shared. “You don’t understand. If you ask me to name my favorite scores, five of the top 10 are Tom Newman: Shawshank, Road to Perdition, Nemo, American Beauty. The guy is a maestro.”
Levy went on saying, “And I was thinking about this movie and what I need the music to be, because it wants to be sort of classically inspired. But no, it’s not gonna be remixes of Williams cues. It may be inspired by some of that, but I knew that I needed a big-hearted movie score from a composer, who like John Williams, doesn’t shy away from themes.”
“So, I called up Tom Newman. You don’t understand, I’m a fan,” added Levy. “And I said, ‘Hey, it’s Shawn Levy. Would you ever consider—?’ And he said, ‘Send me the script, and describe your vision.’ And I did both those things, and it was yes. And I’m so stoked. … I’m so excited about it.”
Thomas Newman will join a small family of composers who have written for Star Wars films. John Williams wrote the scores for all of the Skywalker Saga movies. Michael Giacchino wrote the score for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. John Powell wrote the score for Solo: A Star Wars Story and Ludwig Göransson will be composing the score for The Mandalorian & Grogu.
Newman is a 15 Oscar-nominated composer. He has written the music for films like Finding Nemo, WALL-E, The Shawshank Redemption, Saving Mr. Banks, a couple of James Bond films, and many more. He has had a career in Hollywood that spans over four decades, with music written for both film and television.
Star Wars: Starfighter takes place five years after the events of Star Wars: The Last Skywalker. It is a stand-alone film and has a script written by Jonathan Tropper. It stars Ryan Gosling, Matt Smith, Mia Goth, Aaron Pierre, Simon Bird, Jamael Westman, Daniel Ings, Flynn Gray, and Amy Adams.
