‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Will Feature Music From ‘Hamilton’ Mastermind Lin-Manuel Miranda
Fans of space operasandhistorical musicals rejoice! Just when you thoughtStar Wars: The Force Awakenshad achieved mass cultural saturation, the year’s most anticipated film went out and recruitedLin-Manuel Miranda, the star, composer and lyricist of the massively popular Broadway showHamilton. Lucasfilm and directorJ.J. Abramshad the nerds and families locked down tight – now they’ve going after that elusive musical theater crowd.
But in all seriousness, it’s like the folks behind the scenes of theStar Warsmachine had a big meeting and wondered “Hmm, how can we get Jacob Hall of /Film more excited in a movie he’s already frothing at the mouth to see?” And they’ve found a way. Damn you,Star Wars. You’ve got me.
Read on for more Lin-Manuel MirandaStar Warsnews.
Abrams recently appeared onThe Tonight Show,where he revealed that Miranda contributed music to a sequence set in Maz Kanata’s castle. Although this character, a diminutive alien played byLupita Nyong’o, remains mysterious, we do know that she’s a mystical, Yoda-like figure whose home base is essentially the Mos Eisley Cantina ofThe Force Awakens. Everything indicates that Miranda’s music will be an “in-world” song, most likely from an alien band entertaining a room full of crazy creatures. If you want to invite comparisons to the original iconic cantina music, as heard in 1977’sStar Wars, you need to hire a certified genius to make sure the new song up to snuff.
And Miranda, who previously won a Tony Award for his 2008 musicalIn the Heightsand will probably win a few more next year,isa genius. Literally. They just gave him the MacArthur Genius Award and everything. Anyone who can write and star in an emotionally resonant and historically solid hip-hop/R&B musical about the life of Alexander Hamilton, America’s first Secretary of the Treasury, has to be a genius.Hamiltonis so very, very good.
Miranda himself confirmed the news on Twitter, dropping a Sarlacc reference to show off his geek credentials:
We did.Worked on it between 6pm & 7:30 on 2 show days for the past 2 months.JJ is the best.Can’t wait to see.https://t.co/pPYu8nRsxI
— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel)June 26, 2025
That was exciting.Didn’t even know it would be public until 6:30 tonight.It will take me longer than a Sarlacc to digest this.
Now all we need is for Miranda to make a “Burr shot first” joke the circle will truly be complete.
Although the actual score forStar Wars: The Force Awakenswas written by the greatJohn Williams, this isn’t the first time someone else has stepped in to contribute music to a single scene in a Star Wars movie. Williams' son, Joseph Williams, contributed “Lapti Nek” (a.k.a. the song performed at Jabba’s Palace) inReturn of the Jedi. Although Miranda’s musiccouldbe an instrumental, it would be hilarious if he made up a whole bunch of alien lyrics and had them performed with the speed and density of a musical number fromHamilton.
