Natalie Holt Set As ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ Composer

Natalie Holt has been set as the composer for Disney+’s Obi-Wan Kenobi, becoming the first woman to score a live-action Star Wars project. She broke the news in an interview with Vanity Fair published on Friday, also confirming reports that longtime Star Wars composer John Williams will provide the show’s main title theme, in his first live-action Star Wars TV outing.

Holt teased that Williams’ past work on the franchise will serve as “tentpoles” for her own—and that she will look to bring her own “new and fresh” interpretation of Star Wars music to the series, via elements she can’t yet reveal. “It’s been glorious, working with my hero,” she said with reference to Williams, “and also bringing my own voice to the show.”

Holt also shared that Williams’ as-yet-unheard theme is “reflective” and “just entirely appropriate” for the series.

“It distills what the show is about in just the perfect way that John Williams can,” she continued. “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.”

Holt went on to explain that Williams’ first move into the world of live-action Star Wars TV resulted from his desire to craft a theme for the Jedi Master Obi-Wan—the “only legacy character” he hadn’t yet had a chance to write for, given the fact that he had died “quite early on” when Alec Guinness portrayed him in 1977’s A New Hope.

Obi-Wan Kenobi picks up 10 years after the events of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, where Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) faced his greatest defeat—the downfall of his best friend and apprentice, Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), who went on to become the evil Sith Lord Darth Vader. The series debuting on Disney+ on May 27 also stars Joel Edgerton, Kumail Nanjiani, Moses Ingram, Rupert Friend, Bonnie Piesse, Indira Varma, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Sung Kang, Simone Kessell and Benny Safdie. Kathleen Kennedy, Michelle Rejwan, Deborah Chow, McGregor and Joby Harold are serving as its executive producers.

Holt is an Emmy-nominated British composer perhaps best known for her score to Disney+’s Loki, whose work will also soon be heard in HBO Max’s Batgirl, Fox’s The Princess and Elizabeth Banks’ film Cocaine Bear for Universal. Past credits include such series as Beecham House, Knightfall and Victoria, and films including Herself, Infidel and Cordelia.