Last night, head Star Wars nerd J.J. Abrams revealed Lin-Manuel Miranda will join the ranks of famed composer John Williams. While on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Abrams said that Miranda has written the cantina music for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
It all started off as a joke, though Miranda’s hustle should be applauded. Abrams watched Hamilton on one of Miranda’s off nights, so Miranda made sure to let him know he was available. “And he says, ‘Hey, if you need music for the cantina, I’ll write it.’ And he walks off,” Abrams said. What Miranda couldn’t have known was that Williams felt he shouldn’t write a follow up to his iconic cantina song, so when Abrams asked him if he would really be down for working on the cantina song, Miranda said he would drop everything to do it.
For the next two months, Manuel worked on music in between Hamilton shows with Abrams, and based on the way Abrams spoke about him, they became bffs.