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After nearly two decades of writing music for a galaxy far, far away, it can be argued that Gordy Haab is the most prolific composer in the Star Wars universe, John Williams included. Haab, who’s created the scores for Star Wars games including The Old Republic, Battlefront I and II, Squadrons, Jedi: Fallen Order, and Jedi: Survivor, just finished work on EA and Bit Reactor’s Star Wars: Zero Company. Now, Haab is revealing exactly how both his and Williams’s previous work directly influenced the music of the new XCOM-style game.
I sat down with Haab for an exclusive interview immediately following Star Wars Zero Company’s release, where he revealed that he considers the game’s score to be a “sequel” to other Clone Wars-era stories.
“When I wrote the score for [2017's] Battlefront II, I felt like I was really onto something. [With] Battlefront I, the assignment was to write the B-sides for the original scores. So [afterward] I really sort of branched off and started doing my own thing. So picking up [with Zero Company], I almost wanted to think of it as using Battlefront II as sort of my springboard. My parameter was ‘What would be the sequel to that?’ I wanted to have that sparkle that the Prequel era music has, but also have my personal aesthetic stamp on it.”
Haab also revealed that at a certain point after years spent working on Star Wars, he was able to throw out the Lucasfilm rule book.
Zero Company composer reveals Lucasfilm's rules for Star Wars composers.
“In the beginning, Lucasfilm's direction was always ‘Be original, do your own thing, but the north star is from the original films,’” Haab says. “But then with the onset of multiple shows and games having their own original stories, that’s changed quite a bit. Each project I've worked on has had a different set of walls. When I worked on Star Wars: Hunters, I did the whole thing with an orchestra and a heavy metal band. That would not work in [Zero Company] or the Jedi series, [which is] much darker. It's much heavier, and it's got a lot of horror.”
Haab, who’s also composed music for multiple Indiana Jones games, including 2024’s Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, says he’s flattered by being associated with John Williams’s iconic music, but that the comparison does create a sense of pressure.
“In the beginning it was intimidating,” Haab says. “I felt that sort of pressure to try to live up to the original scores from the films. The ones that inspired me to even become a composer in the first place. I take those moments, I see those things happen, I absorb them, and then I quickly just forget about it and treat it as noise.
“It's almost like winning an award. I accept that award, which I consider that to be. That's a huge compliment to be spoken in the same sentence as my musical hero. But then I quickly put it away and say, ‘Don’t rest on those laurels. Do your thing, get back to work, create your voice within the franchise.’”
Despite multiple trips through the Star Wars galaxy, Haab says composing the various themes that make up Zero Company’s soundtrack presented a fresh set of challenges.
“I spent a couple months just coming up with the themes before I even started putting pencil to paper,” Haab says. “I probably wrote 15 versions of [the main] theme before I even sent it to the developers. I wouldn't even let it out the door of my own studio until I was absolutely thrilled with it. Version 1 was a lot of flourish. I spent a lot of time boiling that theme down to something that is extremely concise and simple, and I think it works.”
Haab says that, aside from the main Zero Company theme, there are two pieces of music from the game that he counts among his favorites.
Star Wars Zero Company composer reveals his favorite musical themes.
“I think from a melody standpoint, [the theme for Hawks, Zero Company’s leader] is my personal favorite because it's got this heroic, drifting upwards shape,” Haab says. “[And another one] would be the theme for the Plague. I wanted it to be something [where] you could have a huge set piece with Hawks’s theme playing, and then the Plague theme would be much like the Plague itself and work its way through the texture of the music, develop[ing] into something pretty dark and heavy and grotesque.”
Haab, who says he’s been a Star Wars fan since seeing the original trilogy in theaters, revealed that there are two particular themes from those films that consistently serve as an influence for his work.
“The Force theme,” Haab says. “I think there's an obvious reason for that. It's utilized in every single one of the films and repeated multiple times. That was such an impactful moment in time for me because I was just a kid watching Luke look out over the double sunset and hearing that horn solo. I remember that, before I knew a thing about music, it shaped who I was. I think that is one of the greatest themes ever written.
“[Also], if you look at the Imperial March, the first section is very singable. Once you get into the B section of that thing, it starts to go really angular and chromatic to the point where, if you were to challenge me to sing it note for note right now, I probably wouldn't nail it. But I can remember the outline of it. I can remember the contour and the shape of it.”
After numerous accolades, including a Grammy for his work on Jedi: Survivor, Haab says that he’s eager to continue working on the franchise but that he realizes he’s just one artist in the vast Star Wars galaxy. When I asked Haab his advice for future Star Wars composers, he revealed a few key rules.
“I would say the two things that you really must take away from it are the importance of theme and not abandoning the sophistication and harmonic complexity that's available to you with a full symphonic orchestra,” Haab says. “I think that is sort of the recipe for good Star Wars music. Now what you do with it is completely up to you. Paint anything you want and it'll feel right as long as those things are honored.”
Star Wars Zero Company is available now on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.
For more on Star Wars Zero Company, read our 9/10 review and find out why we call it "an excellent tactical game that does a fantastic job of slathering on the same cinematic look and feel we saw in Respawn's Star Wars Jedi games."
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