The Score to Shadows of the Empire

Now that we have finished cataloging the scores to the Skywalker Saga, I thought we would do something a little bit different. In 1996, Lucasfilm created a multimedia campaign aimed at filling in the gap between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. This was called Shadows of the Empire. In this story, our heroes attempt to save Han Solo before he is delivered to Jabba the Hutt, while the evil Prince Xizor seeks to murder Luke Skywalker in order to discredit Darth Vader in the eyes of the Emperor. Scottish composer Joel McNeely creates this unique score which is based on the novelization of this story as opposed to a film. Join with me as we discuss the results.