The Mandalorian composer wants to return to Star Wars to score the upcoming Mando and Grogu film
Exclusive | Ludwig Göransson hopes to return to the galaxy far, far away very soon
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!"
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."
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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.
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.