The Mandalorian composer wants to return to Star Wars to score the upcoming Mando and Grogu film

Mando and Grogu in The Mandalorian
(Image credit: Disney/Lucasfilm)

Since it was announced last month, fans have been eagerly awaiting news on the upcoming Mandalorian movie. Simply titled The Mandalorian and Grogu, the film will see the Star Wars franchise finally return to the big screen, arriving in theaters in 2026 - that's seven years since its last cinematic outing, The Rise of Skywalker.

Very little is known about the movie aside from the fact the show's creator Jon Favreau is returning to direct, with Kathleen Kennedy and Dave Filoni once again producing. Oh, and of course, Pedro Pascal will once again suit up as Din Djarin - it wouldn't be The Mandalorian without him!

Given that The Mandalorian's theme music is so synonymous with the masked hero, fans are already wondering whether composer Ludwig Göransson would return to score the feature. And so, speaking to him recently ahead of next week's BAFTA ceremony where he is nominated for Best Original Score for Oppenheimer, we asked Göransson whether he'd be up for it. 

The answer was a resounding 'yes', as he told GamesRadar+ and the Inside Total Film podcast: "Right now I'm still living the past couple of months – in this [Oppenheimer] world, enjoying that. I'm sure there will be something new coming along. I did see the Mandalorian movie announcement – that would be great to work on. I just saw the news the other day and that's so fun!"

Ludwig Goransson

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Not only would Göransson like to return to the world of The Mandalorian, but he hopes to do further work with Oppenheimer, too, in the near future. Following the release of director Christopher Nolan's runaway hit, an 'Oppenheimer Live In Concert' event was held in Los Angeles last month. Tickets quickly sold out for the concert, which saw an orchestra perform the score live alongside the full film. 

Göransson admits he was blown away by the whole thing, making the lengthy work rearranging the entire score completely worth it. It's therefore something he is keen to do again, ensuring that it won't be a one-off event, telling us: "Absolutely! I think this music and this film is something that actually plays really well in a concert hall.

"We spent about two months redoing the entire score. We didn't rewrite it, but we had to re-orchestrate and re-arrange the music so we could perform it in one continuous take. It's two hours and 43 minutes worth of music that was recorded under an extensive amount of time. So, redoing it all to make it playable in one concert was a lot of work. But I was so impressed with how it sounded live and how well it worked with the movie, and the experience of seeing the movie with the orchestra. It was beautiful."


Göransson is currently nominated for both a BAFTA and an Oscar for his work on Oppenheimer. To get the lowdown on the full list of 96th Academy Award nominees, check out our guide to the Oscar 2024 nominations. And for the latest on everything the galaxy far, far away, we have a guide to all the upcoming Star Wars movies and TV shows.

For the full interview with the composer, listen to the latest episode of the Inside Total Film podcast.

Emily Murray
Entertainment Editor

As Entertainment Editor at GamesRadar, I oversee all the online content for Total Film and SFX magazine. Previously I've worked for the BBC, Zavvi, UNILAD, Yahoo, Digital Spy and more.

Read more
Mando and Grogu in The Mandalorian
The Mandalorian & Grogu: everything we know so far about the next Star Wars movie
The Mandalorian and Grogu
The Mandalorian and Grogu has the lowest budget of any theatrical Star Wars movie since Disney bought Lucasfilm
The Mandalorian
Bo-Katan's actor may have accidentally answered whether she is appearing in The Mandalorian and Grogu movie with this cryptic response
Mando and Grogu in The Mandalorian
The Ryan Gosling-led Star Wars movie from Deadpool and Wolverine director is set "five or six years" after The Rise of Skywalker
Star Wars
Two of Star Wars' biggest no-show movies get updates – but they're not completely promising
The Mandalorian
The Mandalorian season 4 release date speculation, potential cast, trailer, plot, and movie details
Latest in Sci-Fi Movies
John Boyega in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
John Boyega was tired of "doing a lot of falling" in the Star Wars sequels, so asked director J.J. Abrams for a "level of growth" between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker
Darth Vader in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars fans have ignited an age-old debate, and there are some seriously hot takes
Sam Worthington in Avatar: The Way of Water
James Cameron's early cut of Avatar 3 is "absolutely breathtaking," according to Disney CEO Bob Iger
Pacific Rim
The 35 greatest 2010s sci-fi movies
Godzilla emerging from an exploding volcano.
Win a Blu-ray of Godzilla vs Biollante
The Mandalorian and Grogu
The Mandalorian and Grogu has the lowest budget of any theatrical Star Wars movie since Disney bought Lucasfilm
Latest in News
Lunar Remastered Collection
"Will today’s players still enjoy a game from 30 years ago?": JRPG icon Kei Shigema says he was thrilled to see Lunar getting a remaster even after all this time
Nick Offerman as Bill and Murray Bartlett as Frank in The Last of Us episode 3
The Last of Us season 2 showrunners tease a "gorgeous" episode akin to season 1’s Emmy-nominated Bill and Frank story: "Just you wait"
The Witcher 4 screenshot with Ciri using sword and sorcery to fight an ancient monster
CD Projekt boss says "cutting-edge single-player games" – you know, like The Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk 2 – will "continue to enjoy great popularity" despite industry shifts
Cyberpunk 2077
Despite releasing exactly zero new games, CD Projekt bagged $120 million in profit for 2024 – the Witcher and Cyberpunk studio's third-best result ever
Muse
Daredevil: Born Again midseason trailer teases Matt Murdock’s violent fight with Muse, including a gory scene straight from the comics
Batman looking over the city during Batman: Arkham City, one of the best PS3 games.
The PS2 Batman Begins game was considered such a "disaster" that Christopher Nolan turned down a Dark Knight-inspired game