Why John Williams Returned to Star Wars for Obi-Wan Kenobi Theme

John Williams returns to the Star Wars galaxy to provide Obi-Wan Kenobi its main character's theme. The piece is Williams' first original work for a Star Wars live-action television series, the composer personally having requested to contribute to the character's live-action miniseries. Speaking to Jake's Takes, Obi-Wan Kenobi director Deborah Chow explained why Williams returned to the Star Wars franchise for the first time since 2019's Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker to produce the new theme. She points out that Williams never gave Obi-Wan a song of his own throughout the entire Skywalker saga. 

"We were incredibly lucky, honestly, so fortunate," Chow says. "It just sort of worked out because he just had this very narrow window where he had a little bit of time. I think the biggest thing, and the biggest reason was because, looking at all the trilogies, Obi-Wan was one of the few characters that he had never written a theme for. So he came on just to write the theme, and we were so lucky it worked out. For me, Star Wars and John Williams, it wouldn't be the same without him. It's so inextricably tied, and also emotionally, it is Star Wars with John Williams, so we were just so grateful."

Chow continued, "We heard it recorded live with an orchestra, and I think for everybody, it was so emotional. It felt very classic right away, where it felt like, 'This has always existed.' So it was pretty magical actually hearing that."

Natalie Holt provides there rest of Obi-Wan Kenobi's score. She previously commented on Williams' contribution to Obi-Wan Kenobi's score. 

"Obi-Wan is a legacy character that John hadn't written a theme for because he died quite early on in A New Hope," Holt recently detailed to Vanity Fair. "It's the only legacy character that he hadn't done. So he spoke to [Lucasfilm president] Kathleen Kennedy and said, 'I just want to write Benny a theme.' So who can deny him that? And he did, he wrote the Obi theme, and it just embodies the spirit of the show entirely."

Of the theme, Holt said, "It's reflective, and it's just entirely appropriate. And it distills what the show is about in just the perfect way that John Williams can. It's wistful, but there's an element of hope to it. It's doing something new and I think people are going to be really blown away by it."

Are you excited to hear Williams' Obi-Wan Kenobi theme? Let us know in the comments. Obi-Wan Kenobi will debut Friday with two episodes on Disney+.