John Williams' Brother Says There's 135 Minutes Of Music To Be Recorded For 'The Rise Of Skywalker'

By: Dominic Jones

Don Williams, the brother of legendary composer John Williams, was interviewed recently about his career as professional musician (often being featured in his brother's film scores) by the Academy of Scoring Arts.  Williams revealed that recording has begun on the soundtrack for Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise Of Skywalker and that they had already recorded approximately 34 minutes out of a total 135 minutes that are needed for the movie.  Don also shared that John had incorporated "every theme you ever heard" into the soundtrack for the final installment of the Skywalker saga.  You can see Don Williams discuss The Rise Of Skywalker, as well as his brother's process, in the video below,

If the run time of The Rise Of Skywalker really is around 135 minutes long (2 hours and 15 minutes), it would put it at around the average length of a Star Wars movie.  Last year's Solo: A Star Wars Story was also 135 minutes long, while The Force Awakens, The Phantom Menace, and Rogue One were all 136 minutes long, and Return of the Jedi clocked in at 131 minutes. The longest Star Wars movie to date was The Last Jedi, which was 152 minutes, followed by Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith at 142 and 140 minutes, respectively.  The shortest Star Wars movies are A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back at 121 and 124 minutes, respectively.

Obviously, there is every chance the movie might turn out to be a little longer or shorter than 135, as director JJ Abrams and his editors tweak and finalize the movie in the coming months.  Also, just because there are 135 minutes of music, doesn't mean there aren't moments in the film where there is no musical soundtrack.  

Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters on December 20th, 2019.  The film is directed by JJ Abrams, with a script by Abrams and Chris Terio, and stars Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Kelly Marie Tran, Mark Hamill, Billy Dee Williams, Keri Russell, Richard E. Grant, Naomi Ackie, Lupita Nyong'o, Domhnall Gleeson, Joonas Suotamo, and Carrie Fisher.

Source: Academy of Scoring Arts (YouTube)

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