In addition to the main Star Wars theme, Star Wars: The Force Awakens will see the return of some themes from the original trilogy.

At the the age of 83, John Williams is getting old, and he’s not able to work as much as he has in the past. Earlier this year, it was announced that Williams had to drop out of Bridge of Spies due to a “minor health issue,” marking only the second time that he would not score a movie directed by Steven Spielberg since their initial collaboration on Jaws (and the other time was only because Spielberg joined The Color Purple after Quincy Jones had already signed on to compose). Also, Williams will not conduct his annual Hollywood Bowl concert this year, though the Los Angeles Philharmonic will perform his E.T. score live during a screening of the film in its place with an introduction from Williams.

But thankfully, Williams is still able to compose his Star Wars: The Force Awakens score. He’s currently prepping to work on his latest Star Wars score right now, and he sat down with Vanity Fair to talk about it and confirmed that it will contain elements of earlier scores.

“There are some scenes where we do make reference to earlier thematic pieces,” Williams said. “We haven’t done it yet, but we’re planning to do it. It’s something that I think will seem very natural and right in the moments for which we’ve chosen to do these kinds of quotes. There aren’t many of them, but there are a few that I think are important and will seem very much a part of the fabric of the piece in a positive and constructive way.”

It makes a lot of sense that Star Wars: The Force Awakens will contain themes from the original movies. Luke, Leia, Han, and the rest all had unique themes, and it would be odd if they suddenly had themes that didn’t match. It will be very organic this way.

Williams also said that his process for scoring Star Wars: The Force Awakens, or any sequel, is far different from his process of scoring a film with no predecessor (which Bridge of Spies would have been).

“It’s a bit like adding paragraphs to a letter that’s been going on for a number of years,” Williams said. “Starting with a completely new film, a story that I don’t know, characters that I haven’t met, my whole approach to writing music is completely different—trying to find an identity, trying to find melodic identifications if that’s needed for the characters, and so on. Which I do here, but here it’s an extension of something that’s been really organic and continually growing. It’s a very, very different process.”

Williams talks about a lot more in the full interview, and it’s worth checking out.

It’s unclear how many more movies Williams will be able to score in his career. After The Force Awakens, he’s currently scheduled to score Star Wars: Episode VIII and IX as well as The BFG, Spielberg’s movie next year. That would give him a new score in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2019. If Spielberg has another movie released in 2018 (which is entirely possible), Williams could have worked planned for the next five years at which time he would be 88 years old.

Williams has had an incredible career. The only person who has received more Oscar nominations than him is Walt Disney, and that’s a pretty amazing club to be a part of.