The Force Awakens features cantina music from Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda

By Danette Chavez | December 1, 2015 | 4:00pm

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The Force Awakens features cantina music from Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda

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Despite what can generously be described as an aggressive marketing push, we still have lots of questions about Star Wars: Episode VII—The Force Awakens, from wondering why C-3PO appears to have part of Iron Man’s armor, to questioning the design of Kylo Ren’s lightsaber. (Oh, and where the hell is Luke?) Disney’s kept a lot of details under wraps, including the complete musical score from returning composer John Williams, which won’t be released until the movie premieres on December 18.

But on Monday, director J.J. Abrams shared some behind-the-scenes info on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, revealing that the film features some kind of cantina scene with music from Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda. It seems Williams wasn’t keen on contributing another song for another cantina band. So, after meeting Miranda at a showing of Hamilton, Abrams took the Tony winner (for In The Heights) up on his offer to write the music for the scene. Miranda’s a gifted lyricist, so there’s hope that the new piece, which was co-written by Abrams, won’t be purely instrumental.