WiC Watches—Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian

HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 13: Composer Ludwig Göransson speaks onstage at the premiere of Lucasfilm’s first-ever, live-action series, “The Mandalorian,” at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, Calif. on November 13, 2019. “The Mandalorian” streams exclusively on Disney+. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)

Chapter 7: “Score”

On this episode of Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian, we’re introduced to The Mandalorian composer, Ludwig Göransson, who won an Oscar for his score for Black Panther. He also composed the music for Venom, as well as Christopher Nolan’s highly-anticipated spy thriller Tenet.

The Mandalorian showrunners Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau sit down with Göransson, who walks Filoni and Favreau through his process when composing music. He begins by creating five new sounds and working them into five new original songs. That’s pretty unique, but the bulk of this episode is fairly mundane; if you’ve ever watched a behind-the-scenes featurette for any movie, then you know what’s coming. Just follow the bouncing ball, add water, and you’ve got your very own homemade Star Wars soundtrack.

That said, some interesting points do arise. They talk about John Williams, naturally, who scored every Star Wars movie except 2016’s Rogue One; Michael Giacchino had that honor. He also didn’t score The Mandalorian.

Dave Filoni talked about how some Star Wars fans can be too possessive of George Lucas’ creation, talking about fans who consider ever single second of the original trilogy to be sacrosanct, even though Lucas himself never intended for his work to be taken that seriously. Filoni argues that Lucas created Star Wars for children, not adults, which is why we see stuff like Ewoks and Jar Jar Binks.

Episode Grade: B+

Be sure to tune in next week, June 19, for the season 1 finale of Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian.