The Star Wars franchise has gone through a lot of changes over the years, from different directors to new ownership, but one thing has remained constant with the main saga: John Williams. While composing duties for the standalone Star Wars movies have been passed on to others (Michael Giacchino scored Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, John Powell is scoring Solo: A Star Wars Story), Williams has scored all the main Star Wars movies himself, from A New Hope back in 1977 to The Last Jedi last December. Following its impressive run in theaters, The Last Jedi's home release has officially kicked off, and for those of you who have a Movies Anywhere account, you have the opportunity access a version of the movie where the only audio you'll hear is Williams' music.
Earlier today, Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson took to his Twitter page and revealed that if you purchase a copy of the movie digitally or use the digital code that comes with the Blu-ray, you'll have access to the music-only cut, which has cut out not just the characters' dialogue, but ambient sound, sound effects and every other audio element that isn't the John Williams score. Think of it as the silent film version of The Last Jedi. However, you can't access this cut of the movie like you would any of the other special features. In order to watch it, you'll need to link your digital copy of The Last Jedi with the Movies Anywhere app. Unfortunately, there is no option to make the "Williams cut" of The Last Jedi black and white to go truly old school.
While he's no longer scored every Star Wars movie, John Williams is nonetheless an important part of this franchise's history. Even though this is a property that thrives on dazzling its audience visually, Williams' music has always been integral to telling stories set in a galaxy far, far away, from enhancing exciting moments to inserting extra emotion. So if you're a fan of William's Star Wars: The Last Jedi score and have the Movies Anywhere App, it'd probably be worth playing this version to hear the music without the distraction of other noise. As for Williams, it appears that his time with the Star Wars franchise is coming to an end. Although he expects he'll return for Episode IX, he said once his work on that is complete, that will be "quite enough" for him.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi is now available on Digital HD, and the Blu-ray/DVD copies will hit shelves on March 27. The franchise continues on May 25 with the release of Solo: A Star Wars Story, and Episode IX will follow on December 20, 2019.
