He’s already an Oscar winning composer, taking home the second most famous gold man in Hollywood for Black Panther, so he’s hardly an unknown artist but his outstanding work on The Mandalorian has opened up the music of Ludwig Goransson to a whole new group of listeners and fans.
Goransson may not be a household name, but he’s a well-known face behind the scenes. (His brief moment in the spotlight came when he accepted the record of the year Grammy for “This Is America” and thanked 21 Savage, who was absent in immigration detention.) He did innovative soundtrack work for Coogler’s Rocky film Creed as well as the director’s breakthrough, Fruitvale Station. Goransson is currently at work on Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, but his next major project will be released in the UK in March: he scored all eight episodes of the Disney Plus Star Wars series The Mandalorian.
The key to the modern-Western sound of The Mandalorian? A flute theme that Goransson came up with once Jon Favreau, the show’s creator, shared his vision – which involved a lonesome rider and a samurai inspiration. The series exists in “more of a dystopic part of the Star Wars history,” Favreau says, “and technology and deconstruction are themes that we explore.”
