April 22, 2022
LOKI Composer Natalie Holt is Composing OBI-WAN KENOBI Series
Composer Natalie Holt (Marvel’s LOKI) has been revealed as the composer for the forthcoming Disney+ series, OBI-WAN KENOBI. She is the first woman to score a live-action STAR WARS project.
Holt spoke exclusively with Vanity Fair today about what fans can expect to hear when OBI-WAN KENOBI debuts on May 27. It turns out John Williams has written a theme for Obi-Wan that is featured in the new series. “Obi-Wan is a legacy character that John hadn’t written a theme for because [the character] died quite early on in A NEW HOPE,” Holt told Vanity Fair’s Anthony Breznican. “It’s the only legacy character that he hadn’t done.” Williams spoke with Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and got the OK to write a theme for Obi-Wan. “It just embodies the spirit of the show entirely,” said Holt.
She went on to briefly describe what her score for OBI-WAN KENOBI embodies: “I think it’s an emotional score, and it does have its roots in the STAR WARS tradition a little more than THE MANDALORIAN does. We had a collection of 250 horns and flutes, and I used this hunting horn in the score. We’re also blending the orchestra with some more modern synths sounds as well. It’s definitely what we’re used to and a few new elements.”
Holt’s score will also incorporate cultural musical influences from the world in which the series takes place, like John Williams’ use of a Dixieland piece for the Mos Eisley Cantina scene in STAR WARS. “It’s taking things that we are familiar with on Earth and giving them a twist,” Holt said. “There are some new worlds that we are introduced to [in OBI-WAN KENOBI]. Coming up with the sound…each world has its own character.”
Read the full Vanity Fair interview here.
Watch the OBI-WAN KENOBI trailer (the trailer’s music is John Williams’ “Duel of the Fates,” from THE PHANTOM MENACE):
