Star Wars fans will hear the iconic John Williams orchestral scores and themes playing as background music in Galaxy’s Edge that have been missing since Black Spire Outpost opened at Disneyland in 2019.
Movie soundtrack themes from the first six Star Wars films will play as background music in Galaxy’s Edge at the Anaheim theme park starting on April 29 when Walt Disney Imagineering introduces new storylines in the themed land from the “Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi” eras of the sweeping space opera.
“The music is just an unbelievable addition,” Imagineering Executive Vice President Asa Kalama said during a press briefing. “That iconic score, at least for me, immediately sends tingles and shivers through my skin. It really is going to help further ground and reinforce that notion that we’ve stepped directly into the universe of Star Wars and really, truly feel like we’re lost in this immersive, almost cinematic world.”
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Disneyland visitors will hear the “Main Title” and “Force Theme” playing as they pass through the entry portals of Galaxy’s Edge.
“Han Solo and the Princess,” “The Desert and the Robot Auction,” “The Emperor” and “Luke and Leia Theme” will be heard throughout the Star Wars themed land.
The infectious Benny Goodman-esque “Cantina Band #1” by Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes will join the playlist inside Oga’s Cantina.
“This is a combination of new rearrangements of some of his classic work interwoven with new edits of some of his more iconic scores,” Kalama said during the press briefing. “So this is all classic, original John Williams music.”
Imagineering has been slowly introducing the classic Star Wars orchestral music into Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland after largely keeping the symphonic score out of the land since its inception.
The “Fire of the Rising Moons” fireworks show in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge featured projection effects and Williams’ galactic soundtrack during the Season of the Force seasonal event starting in 2024.
The 2025 Season of the Force event added the “Shadows of Memory: A Skywalker Saga” projection show in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge paired with Williams’ symphonic scores.
Imagineering initially created an ambient soundscape for Galaxy’s Edge in 2019 that was very different from the background music soundtracks heard in Fantasyland, Frontierland or any other themed land in Disneyland.
Black Spire Outpost visitors heard in-universe music playing in the marketplace, rocketing spaceship sound effects and a droid DJ spinning alien cantina music — but not Williams’ orchestral soundtrack — as they wandered through Black Spire Outpost.
“We are in the story,” Imagineering Portfolio Creative Executive Scott Trowbridge said in 2019. “Orchestras don’t just pop out of ferns. So there isn’t really a background music track, but there is still music throughout the land.”
The familiar Star Wars symphonic scores were reserved for soundtracks inside the two anchor attractions and live shows in the land that were eventually cut from the budget.
“This place is being occupied by real people — the people of Black Spire Outpost and the people that live on Batuu — and that doesn’t have a soundtrack,” Imagineering Executive Creative Director for Music Production John Dennis said in 2019.
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Now the Star Wars musical themes and motifs created by Williams that have been inseparably connected to the movies will be introduced throughout Galaxy’s Edge as well.
The Star Wars storyline expansion and Williams background music are only coming to the West Coast version of Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland. The Batuu East version of Galaxy’s Edge at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida will maintain its current Star Wars experience, music and timeframe.