“Reminiscence Therapy”: Musical Nostalgia in the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy (2015–2019)

With the return of Star Wars to the big screen in 2015 came the promise of new music by John Williams, not least new leitmotifs. Yet, in the era of the “legacy sequel” (Golding 2019), the shadow of the past can loom large and inhibit thematic evolution. Accordingly, this article considers the reuse of original-trilogy leitmotifs (“Luke and Leia”, “Force”, “Rebel Fanfare” and others) and cues (“Yoda Lifts the X-Wing”) in the sequel trilogy, addressing reuse through the lens of nostalgia. It reclassifies certain leitmotifs in this new cinematic context as “reminiscence motifs”, questioning the reasoning behind recycling themes in specific contexts and exploring the effect of reuse on musical mythopoetics. I conclude by problematizing musical authorship and by considering how a rear-oriented perspective might have inhibited the musical evolution of the Star Wars sequel trilogy.