The second season of Andor saw the return of Emmy-nominated composer Nicholas Britell, but also the inclusion of fellow composer Brandon Roberts, who took the baton from Britell when he moved on to other projects, and speaking with Variety he explains how the DNA of the first seasons score was infused into his own orchestrations, and then blossomed into new and original themes that soared as high as the actions onscreen.
For the second season of “Andor,” Roberts needed a 60-piece London orchestra, an eight-voice choir and a variety of offbeat instruments for the planets Yavin, Mina-Rau and Ghorman.
The original composer of “Andor,” Emmy-nominated Nicholas Britell, started the season scoring all of Episode 4, most of Episode 5 and part of 6 before he had to leave the project. Most significantly, he penned the Ghorman National Anthem that figures prominently in Episode 8 as the protestors are being massacred by Imperial troops.
“I wanted to maintain the DNA and the palette that Nick created for Season 1, and use some of those themes,” Roberts says. “But then [showrunner] Tony Gilroy was very clear that there would be new planets, plot developments and character expansion that required new thematic material, new ideas and bigger world-building musically.”
An intimidation factor was the place of “Andor” in the overall chronology of “Star Wars.” It follows the feature-film prequels scored by John Williams, then the Britell-scored “Andor” Season 1, but precedes “Rogue One” (scored by Michael Giacchino), which was itself a prequel to the original, Williams-scored “Star Wars: A New Hope.”
“The biggest challenge was creating a musical continuity while simultaneously trying to bring my own voice to it,” Roberts says. “To make a small contribution to ‘Star Wars’ musically is a dream come true for a composer.”
