With production on The Mandalorian season 2 well underway, one of the show’s key players has officially announced that he will return. In an interview with Deadline, series composer Ludwig Göransson (Community) confirmed that he will return to write the score for the upcoming season.
Göransson commented to Deadline about his excitement for the chance to work on the next season: “We started a couple of months ago, and I’m extremely excited. Jon’s taking the story into places that I didn’t know existed, and I think it’s so fun.”
Göransson also went into detail on his work for the first season of The Mandalorian. He described that initially, he was afraid of living up to the massive legacy Star Wars film composer John Williams (Indiana Jones) left. “What John Williams created for Star Wars was probably the best film music out there—at least, the most known film music. I remember watching the movies as a kid and the impact the visuals and the music had with me,” Göransson told Deadline. Therefore, he started to write the score by moving away from Williams’ traditional orchestral symphonies. He instead used sounds rarely heard in the Star Wars films, such as woodwind recorders and synthesizers.
He based his score off scripts and early concept art for the show. He recorded and wrote the music alone for most of the process, explaining it to Deadline as “connecting with the way I used to write music as a kid, just having the space, and one instrument led me to another.” After showing series creator Jon Faverau (Iron Man) the first draft of the main theme, Göransson got an instant approval. While initially, he did not write with a full orchestra in mind, the full score would go on to incorporate elements of synthesized production, less-produced sounds such as the recorder, and an orchestra.
Last year, Göransson received the Oscar for Best Original Music Score for his work on Black Panther. He has been nominated for his first Emmy for his work on The Mandalorian. The series received several nominations for the Emmys, including Best Drama.
The Mandalorian season 2 is due to premiere this October. Back in May, actor Timothy Olyphant was confirmed to be in the upcoming season. The full first season is available to stream on Disney+ now.