“George never told us there was going to be a second movie!” : The greatest misunderstanding lies in the music of the greatest science fiction saga

Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, Jaws, Schindler’s List, Superman, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Mom I Missed the Plane and of course Star Wars Episode 9!

What all these legendary works of cinema have in common is that they waved, wielded, pointed the magic wand of John Williams. This extraordinary composer, who is undoubtedly among the most legendary musicians in Hollywood and who holds the record for Oscar nominations after Walt Disney (with 54 citations!), recently spoke about his rich and prolific career at the microphone. variety.

“I wrote the romance theme wrong for Luke and Leia”

Among other anecdotes about the many original soundtracks he created during his 70-year career, John Williams particularly returned to the first feature film in the Star Wars saga, directed by George Lucas in 1977, and about the occasion when the composer received. Developed unforgettable franchise themes

However, as he explained, a very inadvertent error crept into the feature film score:

“I wrote the romance theme wrong for Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker”he explained.

“George never told us there was going to be a second movie!”

“Later I found out they were siblings, so it was an incestuous idea to write a romantic theme for them. But George You never told us there was going to be a second movie!”

In fact, it wasn’t until the third feature film, Return of the Jedi, released in 1983 that the world discovered the family ties that united Luke and Leia. Recall that the two characters, who did not know about their relationship, even exchanged a kiss at the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back.

On the subject of the first Star Wars soundtrack, still on the mic varietyJohn Williams also explained that at the time he did not know how to make something so unusual and that it was the audience’s reaction to the film’s release that made the difference.

(Re)discover our Top 5 John Williams soundtracks…