GALAXY’S EDGE BY JOHN WILLIAMS — Academy Award-winning composer John Williams has written a new Star Wars musical theme for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge – Disney’s largest single-themed land expansions ever at 14 acres each coming in 2019 to Disneyland Resort in California and Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. The new theme is incorporated into two signature attractions in the land. Pictured: Sheet music of Williams’ score photographed during the recording session with the London Symphony Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios in London in August 2018. (Scott Trowbridge/Disney)

I loved the headline that Variety editors affixed to this story: “John Williams in Disneyland.” Well, sort of: the Imagineers who conceived and built the new Galaxy’s Edge land in the California theme park (soon to open in Florida too) convinced the legendary Star Wars composer to add one more piece to his many existing film themes for the George Lucas-created universe. This was done in great secrecy, and while Williams was unavailable for my Variety story — the first to delve into it in any detail — I did get both William Ross, the longtime Williams associate who orchestrated and conducted it, and Matt Walker, the Disney exec who commissioned it, to discuss the process and the grand symphonic music that resulted.