Related: How The Clone Wars Fixes Anakin's Star Wars Prequel Arc While the prequel trilogy received mixed reviews from critics and fans alike, the smattering of music from both trilogies within the Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker soundtrack may have been Disney’s subtle attempt to unite the Star Wars fandom and celebrate all of the films contributing to the Skywalker Saga. The prequel trilogy, which debuted between 19, followed up the original movies by exploring how Luke Skywalker’s father and main antagonist of the original trilogy made the transition from Jedi Knight to the Sith Lord Darth Vader over the course of three films: Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, and Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. The Star Wars franchise began back in 1977 with what is now referred to as the “original trilogy,” comprising of Star Wars: A New Hope, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.
As the ninth and final film that marks the conclusion of the Skywalker Saga, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’s soundtrack acts as a nice bookend to all three trilogies as it revisits past themes from each of them, including George Lucas’s prequel trilogy. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the third film in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, pays tribute to the Star Wars films that came before it by hiding snippets of previous Star Wars original scores by composer John Williams within Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’s soundtrack.