John Williams Releases New Arrangement of Classic ‘Star Wars’ Theme

John Williams, who has composed the music for every installment of the episodic Star Wars saga, has crafted a new arrangement of "Across the Stars," the love theme scored to the illicit romance of Jedi Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) and politician Padme (Natalie Portman) in Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones.

Performed by and specially created for Grammy Award-winning violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, the new arrangement of "Across the Stars" will belong to a collection of Williams' classics reinterpreted by Mutter to release in 2019.

Williams will next score Star Wars: Episode IX, director J.J. Abrams' conclusion to the Skywalker saga that has spanned more than 40 years.

The 86-year-old Williams has since suggested Episode IX will be his last contribution to the franchise, after scoring every main installment since 1977's Star Wars and most recently providing a lone theme for a younger Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) in spinoff Solo: A Star Wars Story.

"J.J. Abrams is preparing [Episode IX] that I will hopefully do next year for him," Williams told Los Angeles radio station KUSC in March.

"It will round up the series of nine that will be quite enough for me. Disney will take it further and they will probably continue on to do Star Wars for decades. So I think it's all good."

In October, Williams was hospitalized with an undisclosed illness that forced the composer to cancel performances in London and Vienna.

Williams could conduct Vienna's Philharmonic Orchestra next fall, with sources for the Wiener Musikverein concert hall telling the John Williams Fan Network the concerts are "in Williams' bucket list and he wants to conduct his own music at the Musikverein."

Williams is expected to write and score new music with Academy Award-winning composer Michael Giacchino for Disneyland and Walt Disney World's Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge theme park expansions, providing area and attraction music for the 14-acre expansions to open at both parks in 2019.

Giacchino previously scored franchise spinoff Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, in which he incorporated homages to Williams' iconic Star Wars themes.

Star Wars: Episode IX, starring Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, and Mark Hamill, opens December 20, 2019.