'Star Wars: The Mandalorian' Composer Reacts to Emmy Win, Reveals Season 2 Update

The Mandalorian has had its fair share of the spotlight over the last few weeks. 

A week ago, Disney released the much-anticipated trailer for season 2 of The Mandalorian (featured below), which set fire to the internet and sparked discussion about what season 2 might hold. 

Disney has also released new merchandise for the show, which features a new look at the Mandalorian's armor on several T-shirts, mugs, and more. 

And to top it all off, the hit Star Wars show garnered a whopping fifteen Emmy nominations and scored seven wins. 

The Mandalorian won in a host of categories, including Outstanding Visual Effects, Outstanding Stunt Coordination for a Drama Series, Limited Series or Movie, and Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series (Half-Hour).

In particular, composer Ludwig Göransson earned a much-deserved win for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Original Dramatic Score) for his work on the show, specifically for "Chapter 8: Redemption." 

Göransson, who is only 36, has led a prolific career thus far, and seems to be showing no signs of stopping. Over the course of his 12-year career, he has earned an Oscar for best soundtrack for Black Panther as well as a Grammy for Record of the Year for Childish Gambino's This is America. Now he can add his Emmy win for The Mandalorian to his collection.

Göransson expressed his excitement over the win on Instagram, revealing that the news came on the day they recorded the score for the final episode of season 2.

Thank you to the Academy for this honor and for all of the recognition the Mandalorian team has received this Emmy season.

Thank you @JonFavreau and @Dave.Filoni for creating this groundbreaking series and for giving me the opportunity to cross genres and boundaries with this score.

Thanks to my team and the talented musicians here in Los Angeles for bringing life to the music these last two seasons. Today we finished recording the last episode of Season 2, which I can’t wait for Mando fans to see. This is the way. xLG

Göransson's score has been lauded for its western space vibe, and Star Wars has made efforts to bring fans into the composition process. 

In July, Star Wars released an official music video that gives a glimpse into the scoring process and features music from the show.

On top of that, Rolling Stone announced a release of The Mandalorian score in a massive vinyl box set, which will be a limited edition 8-LP set featuring music from all eight episodes of season 1 of the show. While the individual scores for each eight episodes were released exclusively on digital at first, Mondo is releasing the season 2 soundtrack for its first physical release. Limited to 3,500 copies, the set is available to pre-order on the Mondo Shop.

The Mondo Creative Director of Music, Mo Shafeek, shared this statement in regard to his excitement over the release of Göransson's score on vinyl:

“It’s no longer a secret that Ludwig Göransson is the most talented and exciting person working in film and television music right now. But what goes unspoken is his chameleon-like ability to play within multiple genres, even within single cues of his songwriting for the screen. His music for films like Creed and Black Panther showcase not only his collaborative nature, but also his relationship to pop and hip hop, as well as blending untraditional instrumentation with traditional orchestras. His score for The Mandalorian is similarly masterful in its ability to be wildly experimental while never feeling out of place – like a synth spaghetti western score that feels inspired in equal parts to Ennio Morricone, John Williams and Hans Zimmer, while also never feeling like a pastiche. We are honored to be the home for this complete score.”

We cannot wait to hear the season 2 score when The Mandalorian season 2 premiers on October 30 on Disney+.

Source(s): The Direct, Shop Disney, Emmys, Rolling Stone, Mondo, The National