Williams most recent works have mostly been collaborations with Steven Spielberg for his films Adventures of Tintin, War Horse and Lincoln. While he's composed the main themes for many famous film franchises, with a few exceptions Williams has rarely not returned to compose the sequels, such was the case for the Harry Potter series (Which brought on numerous composers throughout it run including Patrick Doyle, Nicholas Hopper, Alexandre Desplat). Williams was also not asked to compose the scores for either Superman Returns (Where he was replaced by X-Men composer John Ottman) nor Man of Steel (Replaced by Dark Knight composer Hans Zimmer). So it's easy to see why there were some concerns that Abrams wouldn't be bringing back Williams to compose the new Star Wars films despite the fact that he did indeed return for Lucas' Star Wars prequels.
Abrams' usual collaborator Giacchino probably won't be too offended by not being asked to take part in the project, especially due to the fact that he has a busy schedule himself. Giacchino already signed on to replace Patrick Doyle as the composer for Matt Reeve's Rise of the Planet of the Apes sequel; Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. He'll also be providing the score for the Wachowski's next sci-fi film Jupiter Ascending which stars Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis, as well as Brad Bird's next film Tomorrowland starring George Clooney and Hugh Laurie. Had Williams not returned, Giacchino would've easily been the best candidate for the job, as his scores themselves carry a heavy influence of that of Williams. Given Giacchino's past with both Pixar and Disney, he'll probably be the first person they call if there's ever a falling out with Williams.
While Williams will most likely stay on for the duration of new trilogy, he has really only confirmed his involvement with Episode VII. It'll also be interesting to see whether he decides to compose the spinoff films Disney has planned (Which include a Boba Fett and Han Solo film) despite the fact that they probably won't be directed by Abrams. While Williams currently has a clear schedule for numerous future Star Wars project, there is still a possibility he could be asked to compose Jurassic Park IV by director Colin Trevorrow.
Universal most likely has a similar idea in mind for the new Jurassic Park film as Disney has for Episode VII, using this film to launch an all new trilogy. If Williams is indeed asked to score JP4 as well, it could lead to conflicting schedules between the two films. While there's been no word from Trevorrow on who he's considering to score the film, it's must likely that Williams will probably opt out of returning to score the Jurassic Park IV since it'll be released the same year as Episode VII. Hopefully they can work out some sort of schedule that'll allow Williams to contribute to both, but for now the only real confirmation we have is that he will be returning to score J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: Episode VII. I guess that's good enough for us fans, at least for now.
So what do you think of John Williams returning to score Star Wars Episode VII? Would you have preferred Michael Giacchino or someone else take over for him? Let us know below.
