John Williams May Retire From Film Composing After ‘Indiana Jones 5’

John Williams, who has been contributing incredible soundtracks to films for over six decades, may be moving on from film composition after he completes work on Indiana Jones 5.

The composer first told reporters about his plans and even hinted that the film’s star Harrison Ford may retire as well. “At the moment I’m working on Indiana Jones 5, which Harrison Ford – who’s quite a bit younger than I am – I think has announced will be his last film. So I thought: If Harrison can do it, then perhaps I can, also.”

Ford has not actually announced any such retirement yet, but the 90-year-old Williams is more than justified in considering stepping away from his composer work at this point. He did keep the door open for more projects, adding, “I don’t want to be seen as categorically eliminating any activity.”

This doesn’t at all mean that Williams will not be creating any new music. He noted his work commitment for a film like Star Wars could be up to six months, which “at this point in life is a long commitment to me.”

One of the projects he’s working on outside of film is a piano concerto for Emanuel Ax and several other concert music endeavors. He also recently released an album in collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma entitled A Gathering Of Friends, which also featured Pablo Sáinz-Villegas, Jessica Zhou and the New York Philharmonic.