‘Succession’ Composer Tapped To Score ‘Andor’

What Do You Think Of This Choice?

By Culture SlatePublished 2 years ago • 3 min read

Since the heat death of the universe will come before Disney stops pumping out more Star Wars content, one of the next planned shows for Disney+ will be a prequel series to 2017's Rogue One, centered around the character of Cassian Andor. So far, not much has been revealed beyond that the show will take place five years before the events of Rogue One, but one thing we have found out is who will be behind the soundtrack.

Anybody who has even a passing knowledge of the art of TV and film will tell you that a project can live or die by its music. It can make you laugh, cry, build tension, scare you, or any number of things. A sufficiently masterful score can almost be its own character. Half of what makes Michael Myers scary is the iconic Halloween theme. John Williams is the ultimate master at this with the scores for films such as Indiana Jones, Jaws, Jurassic Park, and, well, Star Wars.

With all of that in mind, Disney has hired Nicholas Britell to score Andor. He has scored such films as Succession, If Beale Street Could Talk, Don’t Look Up, Cruella, Vice, The Big Short, The Underground Railroad, and the 2016 Best Picture winner, Moonlight.

The big question here is how much of his personal spin Britell will put on the series. Star Wars has arguably some of the most iconic music in cinematic history, so we'll have to see how Britell adds to that. It's unlikely that he writes something as amazing as what John Williams has done for the franchise, but he can make the series stand out if it has some great music. We've seen this before on Disney+ with The Mandalorian. The soundtrack, particularly the song that plays during the closing credits, really highlights the Western film inspiration of the show. Some of the score wouldn't feel out of place in an old Western.

We know almost nothing about Andor as of now, outside of the time the show is set. Beyond that, we have some of the cast as well. Diego Luna returns to reprise the role he made famous in Rogue One, and we also have popular actors such as Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma, as well as Stellan Skarsgard, Denise Gough, Fiona Shaw and Kyle Soller.

Were I to make a guess, I'd say that it will deal with the beginning of Andor joining the rebellion. He'll be a bit reluctant at first and have no problem toeing the line between moral and immoral but won't see the point of actually throwing his lot in against the Empire. Given that Mon Mothma is a character, we'll probably have her as a main character who slowly but surely whittles down his resolve, until he finally sees the good in what the Rebellion is doing. There might be a lot of similarities between him and Han Solo, so that's something that the creators will have to avoid.

As of now, we don't know in what capacity Britell is planned for the show. It's possible that the music won't be much of a factor, and will just add ambiance to the scenes. Andor himself will probably have his own theme, as will whatever villain the show has as the main antagonist.

So far, we don't have a completely set release date for the show, beyond the fact that it will premier in 2022 on Disney+, where it will likely be overshadowed by the Obi-Wan series. Unless it does something amazing, I can see it being lost in the shuffle. A really killer soundtrack would help it stand out from the pack. We'll have to wait and see.

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