Star Wars 9 Rise of Skywalker runtime and Darth Vader CONFIRMED? Fans will be very happy

Film soundtracks often reveal valuable clues ahead of a big-screen release. Sometimes it’s the track titles, the order of tracks or the running time – but the Episode 9 soundtrack has not even been completed yet, let alone released. This incredible new information comes from a live chat given by composer John Williams’ brother, who always works closely with him and is a celebrated drummer in his own right. Don not only revealed how long his brother’s score will be, he also referenced the various character themes which would be appearing.

Talking to the Academy of Scoring Arts (via CinemaBlend), Don said: “John’s started up on another Star Wars. He started last week, he’s got 135 minutes worth of music to write. So that kind of tells you how long the film is.

“It is top to bottom music. We’ve done four days and we’ve just scratched the surface.”

So, it sounds like The Rise of Skywalker will come in around average length for a Star Wars movie, where the shortest was A New Hope at 121 minutes and the longest was the Last Jedi’s 152 minutes.

STAR WARS 9 ACTOR REVEALS HIS ‘SURPRISE’ WHEN HE READ THE SCRIPT

Don Williams also revealed that his brother was inserting major references to a host of iconic characters and previous movies.

He added: “I can tell you that every theme you ever heard is gonna be compiled into this last effort. Leia, Yoda, the Phantom (Menace), Darth, all of it is gonna be in there.

“In his usual style he (John Williams) hides them, you gotta go look for them. You’ll find them, but you have to go look for them. And you’ll be sitting there watching the film go by and, oops, there it is. There’s two bars of it and it grabs you and takes you away.”

Fans have been speculating whether Yoda and Darth Vader will return for the final outing in the Skywalker saga and this seems to confirm they will.

Don Williams also affirmed just how exciting and challenging the new score will be: “He seems to be writing harder stuff for me to play. Did I do something when I was a kid I don’t know about? It’s hard, it’s wonderful.”

He paid tribute to the extraordinary creativity and drive of his brother in his ninth decade:  “He has an energy at 87… he can stand in front of an orchestra and know every part, he conducts and stand there for six hours.”

John Williams, though, has confirmed this will be his final Star Wars journey: “I look forward to it and we’ll round out a series of nine… That will be quite enough for me.”

WATCH THE DON WILLIAMS INTERVIEW HERE

STAR WARS THE RISE OF SKYWALKER IS OUT ON DECEMBER 19