Warning: SPOILERS for The Acolyte episodes 1-4.

The Star Wars universe expands once more with The Acolyte, a prequel series set 100 years before the events of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. Led by Russian Doll co-creator Leslye Headland, The Acolyte is the first live-action exploration of Star Wars’ High Republic era, which was launched in 2021 with the release of the novel Star Wars: The High Republic: Light of the Jedi. The Acolyte centers on the story of twins Osha and Mae, both played primarily by Amandla Stenberg, and the Jedi’s discovery of a mysterious and deadly Force user.

For all the new characters, ships, and planets The Acolyte introduces, it also has one foot firmly planted in the rich history of established franchise lore. The same is true of the music. Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Michael Abels, known for his beautifully haunting scores for every Jordan Peele movie, lends his considerable talent to the series, bridging the gap between classic John Williams sensibilities and new-era musical ventures with care.

In addition to contributing an effective underscore to every The Acolyte episode, Abels has brought a few musical firsts to the Star Wars universe. Notably, he wrote the choral arrangement for the Brendok witches’ chant in the show’s third episode. He also collaborated with Victoria Monét and producer D’Mile on the creation of Star Wars’ first original pop song in “Power of Two”, which was inspired by that piece. Abels touched on those songs, blending new and classic tones, and more in conversation with Screen Rant about the series.

Abels Was Tasked With Creating A Score “Both Traditional And Fresh”

Screen Rant: I’d love to talk about how, with this show, you’ve managed to capture the John Williams vibe incredibly well while still doing a lot that feels new to this universe.

Michael Abels: That was actually the goal. The goal was to make it feel both traditional and fresh at the same time. Why not set the bar high, and then set it even higher, you know? [Laughs]

This show is charged with introducing all new characters to the Star Wars universe, and that’s a huge challenge because the canon is so well-established. It was important that for everything that was new, there would be something that felt very traditional to make all of these new people feel like they belonged in the Star Wars universe.

With the production design, when I look at the show, I’m like, “Yeah, this looks like Star Wars.” In the score, when there are moments that feel very “Star Wars”, the music needs to be very “Star Wars”. At the same time, there are moments that are very different for Star Wars, and they need to have their own sound. I talked a lot with the showrunner about [things like], “How traditional is this moment in terms of the music?” That was really my starting point for everything.

The Acolyte’s Musical Themes Reflect Emotions More Than Characters

You wrote themes tailored more to emotions than to specific characters [because there’s a lot of moral gray area]. Did the amount of gray area in this show make it more difficult to score than other projects?

Michael Abels: I don’t think so. There’s a lot of music in this show, so it’s a challenge just for that reason. It’s a challenge because of the legacy. The bar is incredibly high, and that’s intimidating. You know there’s an expectation. Those things made it harder in that way, but in terms of actually writing the music, there’s the moment where there’s nothing, and you have to come up with something. That’s no different, no matter what the project is. You have to think, “Okay. What speaks to this moment?”

With the themes… I think I’ve always, not just for this, thought of musical themes and leitmotifs as belonging more to an emotion or a concept than an individual person. I think that more physical assignment of a theme to a person is a more recent thing. If you’re going to pick out a song that is the soundtrack of your life, does that song represent everything about you in every situation and every emotion? It doesn’t matter the piece you pick—it would be a little limiting. So, to me, themes go with ideas and emotions.

We meet the characters, and they’re in a certain place in their journey, so those themes go with them because that’s where they are. If they find themselves on the other side of an emotion, or having a different emotion, a theme that is a lot more passionate, angry, or despondent is going to go with how they’re feeling in that moment. I think I approached it that way without consciously thinking about it.

If people ask, “What are those themes?”, well, listen to the music behind Sol in the first half of the series, or the music when Mae is fighting. There’s a character who’s about to show himself, and that theme rises up from the deep. It starts on a low C and rises in a very menacing way because he literally is coming out of an unseen place. And yet, all those themes can occur under different characters if their feelings match the emotion of whatever that theme represents.

And how do you choose which moments to lean on in a particular moment when we’re following multiple characters with different motivations? Someone pointed out that when Indara is killed, the music is very sad, even though it’s a triumphant moment for Mae.

Michael Abels: That’s a great point. Until you said that, it never occurred to me to play that with triumph, but that would have been a choice, completely. I can answer that one specifically. That’s the opening of the show, which, in the industry, is called the cold open. Cold, meaning you don’t know anything, and then you’re in this world, so everything you’re seeing is for the first time.

That cold open involves the death of a Jedi which, for Star Wars, is a BFD. It’s very unconventional, and I told you the whole theme of how to approach telling the story is the conventional versus the unconventional and how to balance them, at least from the music point of view. To me, the death of a Jedi in the cold open is very unconventional. The fans’ reaction to that is going to be, “OMG. What are they doing?” The music portrays the feeling one would have at the death of a Jedi, which is, whether at the beginning or ending of something, that it’s a tragedy. And [when Mae kills Indara], I don’t know who this character is who caused this to happen, but I do not think that I’m rooting for her.

I think to play the death of a Jedi as anything less than a tragedy, especially at the beginning of a story, wouldn’t make sense to me as a fan of Star Wars. Leslye certainly never said anything different, and to me, that was always clearly a tragedy. Then, just to add on to that, that Jedi is played by Carrie-Anne Moss, and to see her die in the first five minutes is a huge ask. The music acknowledges what we’ve just seen, and it says, “If you’re feeling upset about this, well, the music is right with you.” It’s a tragedy.

What To Listen For Over The Acolyte’s Title Card

There was a moment that jumped out at me with the “conventional vs. unconventional” balance, which was the beginning of episode 4 over the title card. You have a woodwind line that feels very classic to Star Wars over percussion that feels more like what you would do on a Jordan Peele movie. When it comes down to individual moments, how much are you trying to bridge that gap [between old and new]?

Michael Abels: Oh, it’s constant. It’s not constant where [I’m going], “Okay, this scene is very traditional. [Let’s shake it up].” The tragedy theme is introduced when Indara is killed, but whenever there’s a great loss, or someone is talking about something that was clearly a great loss, that theme comes back. It’s a very traditional Star Wars-type theme, and it’s always orchestral, even though it occurs in different instruments. It’s purely in one genre, and I don’t need to change the genre of it in any way for it to be effective.

But in the case of that moment in episode four where you see the logo… there’s no main title. With all the themes in the show, there’s no main title. Leslye said, “I don’t care if there’s a main title. I’m not really committed to it,” and there’s no opening credits in this show either, so there isn’t an opportunity for me to do it. All there is is the logo, which lasts about 10 seconds.

There is a motive of a main title, but it’s four notes because that’s the amount of time we have. So, each episode has those same four notes, but it’s always scored very differently. It’s always scored according to what we’ve just seen and what feels right coming out of the scene.

In episode four, right before the logo, we see Mae following Qimir into the forest on Khofar. It’s Mae’s walking music, which is her battle music at a walking tempo—the big drums—and the vibe is one part organic and one part this intentional march. [Then], we go to the logo, so you hear music that fits with what we’ve just seen, but then you hear those same four notes. That’s something to listen for in the rest of the series—“How do the four notes of the logo go with whatever we’ve just seen?”

Abels Leaned On The Orchestra As Much As Possible, Even For The Master’s “Horrific” Episode 4 Entrance

At the end of that same episode—the insane ending that has everyone excited for episode 5—there is very tense music and what sounds like sound design elements. I don’t know if that was all you, but using that as an example, can you talk about the non-traditional instrumentation you got to use on the show?

Michael Abels: There are some moments that are very horrific, and the end of episode four is one of the prime examples. This character that we see represents chaos. He represents the unexpected and the unexplained, and there’s nothing like really dissonant sound design-y music to help explain that. That’s the music that goes with that scene as he comes in and wreaks havoc. There are a lot of textural elements there. One or two are virtual, but the others were created with live instruments, because I had this giant great orchestra [with which] to create them.

When he really uses the Force and all the Jedi are flattened with a Force push that’s really powerful, there’s a giant brass cluster. A cluster is a chord that has all sorts of other nasty notes in it, and the sound of brass instruments comes from air being pushed through these tubes. So, you see the Jedi being blown back, and the music literally is people blowing. I think that’s part of why it viscerally works so well. You just feel the push of the air pushing them back.

One of the most fun things about the work I do is being able to create things that are beautiful in a way that a sunset is beautiful, but then also write things that are horrifying, and terrifying, and as ugly as can be. When I hear something that ugly and forceful, I’m like “Yeah, that’s what this moment needs.”

“Power Of Two”, Star Wars’ First Pop Song, Was Inspired By Abels’ First Piece For The Series

In episode 3, we have the “Power of Two” chant, which I think is the first time we have a choir singing lyrics in English in live-action Star Wars (Interestingly, John Williams’ “Duel of the Fates” featured verse from a Welsh poem recited in Sanskrit). How did all of that come together? Were you precious about it at all?

Michael Abels: That was the first piece I wrote, not just because that was a good jumping-in point, but also because it was performed on camera. The music had to exist before they shot it. Therefore, it’s much earlier in the process, whereas all the other music could wait until post-production, which might be months later.

You can’t be precious about it, because you have no idea the journey a scene is going to go on before it’s shot. Every scene, even if it appears in the final exactly as it was in the script, goes on a journey of how to tell the story. I knew that this scene would be no different.

What I originally wrote was purely a vocal piece for women’s voices. The voices are very multicultural. There’s a voice from nearly every continent, each not only doing music that I wrote out specifically for them to sing together, but also the riffs that they would do in their own culture. I combined those so that it was a very female, multicultural sound, which is what you see on the screen. The words were directly out of the script.

Because I’m a Star Wars fan, I told them it was really important for me to be on set when they shot the scene. Somehow, that story was believed to the point that I got to be on set and see it, so that was super great. At that point, one of the producers, Rayne Roberts, said, “We’re hoping that there can be an original song for this series,” and I don’t think they’d ever done that. Almost a year later, she sent me tracks by Victoria Monét and D’Mile. I was instantly a fan of both of them and was so excited that they might be able to do this.

Ideally, the song should relate to the rest of the music of the series in some way, so I went to D’Mile and gave him a lot of the themes of the show. The thing he chose to use was the music from the ascension ceremony and the original vocals, which was where the whole thing started, so that felt like a really natural [choice]. Victoria wrote this great song around what D was doing, which really is a song written from Osha’s point of view. I was amazed by her ability–from what I could tell, that seemed effortless for her, and it’s quite a skill to be able to do that.

The song is a single called “Power of Two”, and I’m really proud of how it turned out. In the series, it’s the end title of episode 7, and for that, I did an extension, so the song would be a full end title. That was a great experience.

Amandla Stenberg Might Join The Orchestra For Season 2

It is a dream of mine to see a live-action, main canon Star Wars character playing an instrument. Amandla is a brilliant violinist. Can you talk to Leslye, write something, and make this happen for next season?

Michael Abels: Here’s that story from my perspective. First of all, I never noticed, until you said that, that no Star Wars character plays an instrument, and I’m not going to ever un-see that. So, thank you for that.

I think I found out that Amandla was a violinist the same time everyone else did—when they released a video of her playing, which was about four minutes before the show was released. I was like, “What?” I felt tricked.

I met her at the premiere, and my first words to her were, “Nice violin playing.” Anyone who’s in a show I work on, I have to watch for hours and hours and hours, so I feel like I know them. They’ve never seen me—they’ve been off doing other things—so I say, “Hey,” and they’re not sure if they should ask their publicist to escort them away or not, because I act like I know them.

So, I said to her, “Nice violin playing.” She stopped, and I said, “Hi, I’m Michael, I did the music.” I said, “They were keeping it from me that you’re a violinist. There are violin solos in this score over your character. Why did I not have you play these solos?”

She said she couldn’t wait to hear them, because I don’t think she’d seen the episodes where those solos happen. I just said, “Well, next time, if there’s a season two, you’re playing the violin.” So, we have this verbal agreement that she’s playing all the violin solos in season two. We’ll see if that manifests. But your goal is already in the works, is what I’m telling you.

Abels Details His “Mixed Reaction” To The Acolyte’s Fan Response

As someone who is too online, I’ve read many things people have said picking at different aspects of the show. A character’s birthday, the “wokeness”, all of it. I’m curious, if you’ve been reading that stuff, how you’re feeling about it, how Leslye’s feeling about it, and how it’s impacted you all.

Michael Abels: I have been reading, and I’m going to continue reading, because it’s really important for me to know about the reaction. Jordan Peele movies have a huge fan base, and people dissect every aspect of the trailers when they come out. It’s remarkable. Also, not everybody likes Jordan Peele movies, and they have a lot to say about that. That’s not new to me.

What is new is the level of passion about this. I have been a Star Wars fan all my life, but not compared to some people. I really am a newbie compared to some people and how deeply they’re into it.

I have a very mixed reaction. I do love that people are so passionate about it and feel like it’s so personal to them about what Star Wars means to them. I would be a composer without Star Wars, but my life is forever blessed because of the music from Star Wars, and that’s really personal to me. I have to respect that other people have other things about Star Wars that are as personal to them as the music is to me.

I can’t say that I agree with some of the things that they choose to be passionate about, like the age of characters. I don’t think that’s quite as important as the things I care about. It’s just not as important to me about what makes Star Wars.

But I think that our show is honoring the things that are important about Star Wars for a lot of people, and I love that the show is reaching those people that can appreciate what we’ve done for Star Wars.

Abels Reflects On The Film Scoring Journey That Began With Get Out In 2017

Get Out was your first film score, and that didn’t come out too long ago. How has your scoring process changed since then?

Michael Abels: When you do something, and you get different experiences, every experience you have is informed by the ones you’ve had. When something’s not working early in your career, you may not know how many ways you have to approach the situation differently. As time goes on, because you’ve approached things differently and found success in that, I think I, anyway, have more confidence in going, “Okay, we’ll just do it this other way and see how that turns out.”

I’ve also noticed, about my own response to feedback, that I tend to be resistant when I don’t know how to do what they’re asking me to do. My relationship to whether I think something’s a good idea completely relates to whether I think I can do that idea. Thinking about that, that makes sense. Why would people say yes to things they don’t know how to do? But to notice that—I never say, “Oh, that’s a great idea, and I don’t know how to do that.” It’s always, “Oh, that’s a great idea, and I’ll do that tomorrow,” or, “I don’t really agree with that.”

So, to notice, “Maybe it is a good idea, but I just need to figure out how to do it,” makes me more open to feedback. It’s like, “This is my challenge, not the thing I need to resist.” It’s a lot of introspection that I hope makes me a better collaborator.

About The Acolyte

A mystery-thriller that explores a new era in Star Wars, the end of the prosperous High Republic era. As shadowy secrets and dark side powers begin to emerge a former Padawan will reunite with her Jedi Master to investigate a series of crimes. However, they soon learn that the forces they are up against are more sinister than anyone could have expected.

Check out our other The Acolyte interviews:

• Amandla Stenberg & Leslye Headland
• Dafne Keen, Charlie Barnett & Manny Jacinto
• Jodie Turner-Smith & Rebecca Henderson
• Lee Jung Jae