‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’: Ludwig Göransson on How ‘American Gladiators’ Inspired the Pit Fight Scene and Why ‘Grogu’s World’ Theme Proved Challenging
Back in 2019, when writer and director Jon Favreau asked composer Ludwig Göransson to score “The Mandalorian” TV series for Disney+, Göransson used new tools and introduced a new sound to the “Star Wars” universe. That distinct and lonely bass recorder became the theme for the helmet-wearing bounty hunter, while his sidekick Grogu had a four-note motif.
Building on his earlier work, Göransson’s score commands “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu,” and he doesn’t hold back, using a 70-piece orchestra to weave in elements from the film’s sound design to go big and deliver an epic-cinematic score.
The film is a continuation of the series and follows Din Djarin (a.k.a. Mando) and Grogu as they navigate a galaxy still recovering from the fall of the Galactic Empire, with Imperial warlords scattered throughout. The fledgling New Republic works to protect what the Rebellion fought for and turns to the bounty hunter and his young apprentice for help.
Göransson’s “This Is the Way” opens the film with an eight-minute cue that exemplifies how he wove in alarm-like sounds with percussion and synths. He says, “The first time you see Mando, alarms are going off in the building. I was using the alarms as part of the music, timing the music with the alarms.”
When Rotta the Hutt is kidnapped and held on a new planet, Shakari, Göransson goes hard on the electronic synths. That, married with orchestra and Mando’s bass recorder, is a sound harkening back to his days as a producer for Childish Gambino (Donald Glover’s musical stage name). He says, “When I first started working with Jon, he was finishing up ‘The Lion King,’ and working with Donald. They were talking about me, and Jon was always excited and interested in that other side of me, where I produce beats. I think he was interested in how we could bring that side into Star Wars.”
As soon as Göransson saw Shakari on screen and its neon visuals, he said, “It brought me back to those kinds of synths.” He added, “That’s what’s fun about ‘Star Wars’ and ‘The Mandalorian.’ There are so many different, interesting visual worlds that they go to — different planets, creatures, and music. You can take it anywhere, and Jon and Dave are always open to seeing where it goes.”
Rotta the Hutt (voiced by Jeremy Allen White) had a theme that matched his larger-than-life energy. Electric guitars and chanting vocals form the basis of that sound. In one scene, Din Djarin and Rotta find themselves inside a gladiator arena at a “dejarik match,” where they take on creatures whose sole intention is to kill the duo. Musically, Göransson pulled in the crowd chanting for the cue titled “The Pit Fight,” mixed in with pounding drums and more electronic synths. The inspiration came from the 1990s show “American Gladiators,” which he recalls watching as a child. “I think that was my inspiration in terms of that feeling I wanted to evoke.”
Göransson faced his most challenging musical sequence: finding the right sound for the third act, which centered on Grogu.
Much of that act centers on Grogu. When Din Djarin is poisoned by a deadly Dragonsnake, he falls into a coma, and Grogu is forced to fend for himself as he watches over his friend.
“I didn’t know exactly how to approach that scene because it’s a pretty long sequence. I remember sitting with it for the longest time, trying out different ideas and writing completely new ones,” he says.
The scene contained hardly any dialogue. He admits, “I put a lot of pressure on myself writing and finishing that. It wasn’t until the very last day before scoring that I was finally able to sit down and figure out what it needed to be. Once I did that — using that four-note theme — looking back, it’s like a no-brainer. But it took me all that time to try it over and over again, and sit there on the last day, and I was like, ‘Okay, I’m to going to use this theme throughout this scene and see where it takes me.”
It all came together as he watched the scene. Göransson felt drawn in by the visuals. “He’s sitting there meditating, but it’s such a beautiful moment. You get to follow him from his perspective and see what he does when he’s alone. Now he’s in charge; it becomes his adventure.”
He says the scene also gave him the chance to explore Grogu’s theme “and take it somewhere different, really expanding on it to tell the story.” The lack of dialogue meant Göransson could let the music speak for him. “It could convey what’s going on, what he’s thinking, what’s happening, and how he’s feeling. There’s a little bit of magic in there, and I thought it was so much fun to tell that musical story – almost like a ‘Peter and the Wolf’ moment, where I use some of the woodwinds to make the sounds of birds.”
He credits the orchestra calls working with the musicians “something truly special.” He says, “We had a lot of time to record, and all the musicians who played on the original score seven years ago returned. At that time, they didn’t know ‘The Mandalorian’ theme would become canon and part of everyone’s world. Having the musicians come back and go through this music again in L.A. was a beautiful experience. I also let many of the musicians shine at different moments with solos for various instruments.”
Göransson says he had fun with the score. In one musical moment, he says, “I got to do a Django Reinhardt-style jazz guitar version of the ‘Mandalorian’ theme with Andreas Öberg, my old guitar teacher from Stockholm, which was a great experience.”
Up next, Göransson steps into different territory, reuniting with Christopher Nolan for “The Odyssey.” For that, Nolan instructed Göransson not to use an orchestra in the score. He told Time Magazine, “It’s not like the orchestra existed back then.… It was a challenge and also an opening to try to make something unique.” Instead, Göransson rented 35 bronze gongs of varying sizes, experimented with them, and recorded them with synths.
Would he like to record his own album or even produce more music?
Göransson says, “That’s a way for me to also kind of learn more, and working with artists or producing artists, and working with another musician, as a great way for me, would I be able to excel and learn more about the craft, and learn more about new ways of working and new sounds, and so I love that part of my process.”
His most rewarding part of scoring is that his children are old enough to be obsessed with his work. “They listen to everything I’m doing, but what’s really fun is that they are both learning to play the theme on the piano.” He adds, “From listening to the soundtrack, they can really follow the story of the film as its own.” He goes on to say, “More than any other soundtrack I’ve done, you can follow every scene just by listening and know exactly what’s going on.”
Building on his earlier work, Göransson’s score commands “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu,” and he doesn’t hold back, using a 70-piece orchestra to weave in elements from the film’s sound design to go big and deliver an epic-cinematic score.
The film is a continuation of the series and follows Din Djarin (a.k.a. Mando) and Grogu as they navigate a galaxy still recovering from the fall of the Galactic Empire, with Imperial warlords scattered throughout. The fledgling New Republic works to protect what the Rebellion fought for and turns to the bounty hunter and his young apprentice for help.
Göransson’s “This Is the Way” opens the film with an eight-minute cue that exemplifies how he wove in alarm-like sounds with percussion and synths. He says, “The first time you see Mando, alarms are going off in the building. I was using the alarms as part of the music, timing the music with the alarms.”
When Rotta the Hutt is kidnapped and held on a new planet, Shakari, Göransson goes hard on the electronic synths. That, married with orchestra and Mando’s bass recorder, is a sound harkening back to his days as a producer for Childish Gambino (Donald Glover’s musical stage name). He says, “When I first started working with Jon, he was finishing up ‘The Lion King,’ and working with Donald. They were talking about me, and Jon was always excited and interested in that other side of me, where I produce beats. I think he was interested in how we could bring that side into Star Wars.”
As soon as Göransson saw Shakari on screen and its neon visuals, he said, “It brought me back to those kinds of synths.” He added, “That’s what’s fun about ‘Star Wars’ and ‘The Mandalorian.’ There are so many different, interesting visual worlds that they go to — different planets, creatures, and music. You can take it anywhere, and Jon and Dave are always open to seeing where it goes.”
Rotta the Hutt (voiced by Jeremy Allen White) had a theme that matched his larger-than-life energy. Electric guitars and chanting vocals form the basis of that sound. In one scene, Din Djarin and Rotta find themselves inside a gladiator arena at a “dejarik match,” where they take on creatures whose sole intention is to kill the duo. Musically, Göransson pulled in the crowd chanting for the cue titled “The Pit Fight,” mixed in with pounding drums and more electronic synths. The inspiration came from the 1990s show “American Gladiators,” which he recalls watching as a child. “I think that was my inspiration in terms of that feeling I wanted to evoke.”
Göransson faced his most challenging musical sequence: finding the right sound for the third act, which centered on Grogu.
Much of that act centers on Grogu. When Din Djarin is poisoned by a deadly Dragonsnake, he falls into a coma, and Grogu is forced to fend for himself as he watches over his friend.
“I didn’t know exactly how to approach that scene because it’s a pretty long sequence. I remember sitting with it for the longest time, trying out different ideas and writing completely new ones,” he says.
The scene contained hardly any dialogue. He admits, “I put a lot of pressure on myself writing and finishing that. It wasn’t until the very last day before scoring that I was finally able to sit down and figure out what it needed to be. Once I did that — using that four-note theme — looking back, it’s like a no-brainer. But it took me all that time to try it over and over again, and sit there on the last day, and I was like, ‘Okay, I’m to going to use this theme throughout this scene and see where it takes me.”
It all came together as he watched the scene. Göransson felt drawn in by the visuals. “He’s sitting there meditating, but it’s such a beautiful moment. You get to follow him from his perspective and see what he does when he’s alone. Now he’s in charge; it becomes his adventure.”
He says the scene also gave him the chance to explore Grogu’s theme “and take it somewhere different, really expanding on it to tell the story.” The lack of dialogue meant Göransson could let the music speak for him. “It could convey what’s going on, what he’s thinking, what’s happening, and how he’s feeling. There’s a little bit of magic in there, and I thought it was so much fun to tell that musical story – almost like a ‘Peter and the Wolf’ moment, where I use some of the woodwinds to make the sounds of birds.”
He credits the orchestra calls working with the musicians “something truly special.” He says, “We had a lot of time to record, and all the musicians who played on the original score seven years ago returned. At that time, they didn’t know ‘The Mandalorian’ theme would become canon and part of everyone’s world. Having the musicians come back and go through this music again in L.A. was a beautiful experience. I also let many of the musicians shine at different moments with solos for various instruments.”
Göransson says he had fun with the score. In one musical moment, he says, “I got to do a Django Reinhardt-style jazz guitar version of the ‘Mandalorian’ theme with Andreas Öberg, my old guitar teacher from Stockholm, which was a great experience.”
Up next, Göransson steps into different territory, reuniting with Christopher Nolan for “The Odyssey.” For that, Nolan instructed Göransson not to use an orchestra in the score. He told Time Magazine, “It’s not like the orchestra existed back then.… It was a challenge and also an opening to try to make something unique.” Instead, Göransson rented 35 bronze gongs of varying sizes, experimented with them, and recorded them with synths.
Would he like to record his own album or even produce more music?
Göransson says, “That’s a way for me to also kind of learn more, and working with artists or producing artists, and working with another musician, as a great way for me, would I be able to excel and learn more about the craft, and learn more about new ways of working and new sounds, and so I love that part of my process.”
His most rewarding part of scoring is that his children are old enough to be obsessed with his work. “They listen to everything I’m doing, but what’s really fun is that they are both learning to play the theme on the piano.” He adds, “From listening to the soundtrack, they can really follow the story of the film as its own.” He goes on to say, “More than any other soundtrack I’ve done, you can follow every scene just by listening and know exactly what’s going on.”