During the recent Star Wars Celebration 2023 in London, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’s director, James Mangold, opened up about getting composer John Williams to return to the franchise. Williams initially said he planned to retire after scoring Mangold’s sequel. But as you can tell by this story, the drive to compose, and surround himself in music, might never go away. Mangold talked about the process of securing Williams, and said:
“It’s even more complex than that. I was thrilled beyond belief, but at first he was going to write some themes, you know, and then hire some people to help arrange it throughout the movie. And then he saw the movie. And then he started writing themes, and then he just didn’t stop until he had written over two hours of music. In pencil!”