James Newton Howard (The Hunger Games, King Kong, Maleficent, The Sixth Sense, Signs) has revealed in a recent interview in the latest episode of Score: The Podcast that he is attached to compose music for Lucasfilm’s upcoming Disney+ original series Willow. The show is developed by Jonathan Kasdan (Solo: A Star Wars Story, In the Land of Women) & Wendy Mericle (Arrow) and stars Warwick Davis who returns in the title role, alongside Erin Kellyman, Ellie Bamber, Tony Revolori, Ruby Cruz and Amer Chadha-Patel. The fantasy drama is based on the 1988 feature (produced and written by George Lucas, directed by Ron Howard and scored by James Horner) and will take place years after the events of the film. Kasdan, Mericle, Howard are also executive producing the project with Kathleen Kennedy (Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Mandalorian) and Michelle Rejwan (Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker). Stephen Woolfenden is directing all episodes. Willow is currently in production and is expected to premiere in 2022 on Disney+.
As previously reported, Howard also has the third installment in the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them coming up. His other recent projects include Disney’s Jungle Cruise, which is currently playing in theaters and is also available on Disney+ Premiere Access.
He did compose a lot of musical scores for a lot of movies like Dinosaur, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Treasure Planet, Raya and the Last Dragon, Gnomeo & Juliet, Space Jam, The Hunger Games, Fantastic Beasts, King Kong remake, Maleficent, Jungle Cruise, Flatliners and so much more. I always trusted him to begin with and I still trust him now. He’s still a talented composer.
Anyone that knows of film composers, knows what James Newton Howard has composed, no list needed. I mean, he’s one of the greats, legends, of film composing and has been doing it for longer then most. It’s been a given, probably since the 90’s, that when you hear of JNH composing music for this film or that film, that it will be a great score, no hesitation or convincing needed.
Couldn’t agree more.
I also forgot to mention he also co-scored Batman Begins and The Dark Knight along with Hans Zimmer
Amazing news…would be wonderful if JNH also gets hired to work on a certain other Horner sequel…
Cool, I wonder if he’ll also do Andor, since he worked with Tony Gilroy multiple times.
If you mean Avatar, that’s already being covered by Simon Franglen, who worked with Horner a bunch of times.
No, they mean Andor. You know, the Rogue One prequel series?
I believe Evaran was replying to Morgan Joylighter, not Ben Quadinaros. I also hope James Newton Howard does the Avatar sequels. Either him or Alan Silvestri, who wrote the music The Abyss for James Cameron.
I’m curious if he’ll utilize any of James Horner’s original themes? Willow had such a rich, classically influenced score and is one of my favorite 80s fantasy scores by Horner. Fingers crossed that he’ll talk into some of the existing soundscapes Horner established.
He is an amazing composer and is perfect for this project!