Ridley Scott’s post-apocalyptic thriller The Dog Stars opened in theaters on August 28, 2026, distributed by 20th Century Studios. Starring Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin, Margaret Qualley, Allison Janney, Guy Pearce, and Benedict Wong, the film is adapted from Peter Heller’s acclaimed novel of the same name, with a screenplay by Mark L. Smith (The Revenant, Twisters). The story follows a widowed civilian pilot named Hig — one of the few survivors of a global pandemic — who intercepts a mysterious radio transmission from his Cessna and sets off on a dangerous journey to trace its source.
For the music, Scott has turned once again to his most trusted collaborator: British composer Harry Gregson-Williams. The Dog Stars marks their eighth confirmed collaboration, and Gregson-Williams’ assignment was first reported by Film Music Reporter on April 16, 2026. The official score album — a 17-track collection — was released digitally by Hollywood Records on August 28, 2026, alongside the film’s theatrical debut.
Quick Facts
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Film Title | The Dog Stars |
| Director | Ridley Scott |
| Production Companies | Scott Free Productions / 20th Century Studios |
| Distributed By | 20th Century Studios |
| Theatrical Release Date | August 28, 2026 |
| Composer | Harry Gregson-Williams |
| Screenplay | Mark L. Smith (based on the novel by Peter Heller) |
| Score Album | 17 tracks, released digitally by Hollywood Records on August 28, 2026 |
| Genre | Post-apocalyptic survival thriller |
Editorial Note: The Dog Stars opened in theaters on August 28, 2026. This article has been updated to reflect the confirmed 17-track score album (released the same day by Hollywood Records) and the confirmed in-film needle-drop songs, both detailed below.
The Dog Stars Soundtrack Overview
The musical component of The Dog Stars is an original orchestral score composed entirely by Harry Gregson-Williams. The assignment was confirmed by Film Music Reporter — the primary trade source for film scoring news — on April 16, 2026, making it one of the most anticipated scores of the 2026 summer slate.
Given the film’s tone — a desolate, pandemic-ravaged Colorado landscape, a grieving survivor searching for signs of human life — Gregson-Williams crafted a score that leans on the same atmospheric, emotionally grounded orchestral approach that defined his work on prior Ridley Scott collaborations like The Martian and The Last Duel. The score was ultimately released by Hollywood Records — not Decca Records, which had released Gregson-Williams’ Gladiator II score in 2024 — as a 17-track digital album on August 28, 2026, the same day the film opened.
Who Composed The Dog Stars Soundtrack?
Harry Gregson-Williams is the composer of The Dog Stars (2026), as confirmed by Film Music Reporter on April 16, 2026.
Born on December 13, 1961, in Sussex, England, Gregson-Williams is one of the most prolific and decorated film composers working in Hollywood today. He earned a choral scholarship to St. John’s College, Cambridge, at the age of seven, and later trained at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London — an institution that subsequently awarded him an Honorary Fellowship. He has received the BMI Icon Award for his influence on generations of composers, and the Ambassador Award from the Society of Composers & Lyricists (SCL).
His film career began as an assistant to composer Richard Harvey, and he later worked as an orchestrator for Stanley Myers before receiving his first scoring credits under director Nicolas Roeg. His trajectory changed significantly in the mid-1990s when he relocated to Los Angeles and began working as a protégé of Hans Zimmer at Remote Control Productions, contributing to soundtracks including The Rock, Armageddon, and The Prince of Egypt. Zimmer’s mentorship launched Gregson-Williams into the front rank of Hollywood film composers.
Gregson-Williams is known for seamlessly blending electronic and orchestral elements — a hybrid approach that made him a creative pioneer in modern film scoring. He earned a BAFTA nomination for Best Film Music for Shrek (2001), and received Golden Globe and Grammy Award nominations for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005). He also received a World Soundtrack Award for Film Composer of the Year in 2007, and an Emmy nomination in 2018 for his work on Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams.
His relationship with Ridley Scott is one of the defining creative partnerships of his career. The Dog Stars marks their eighth collaboration together, following Kingdom of Heaven (2005), Prometheus (2012, themes only), Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014, themes only), The Martian (2015), The Last Duel (2021), House of Gucci (2021), and Gladiator II (2024). For Gladiator II, Gregson-Williams composed over 100 minutes of original score — recorded at Abbey Road Studios with more than 100 musicians and singers from across the globe — and the album was released by Decca Records on November 15, 2024.
Harry Gregson-Williams — Selected Filmography
| Year | Film / Series | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Shrek | Andrew Adamson, Vicky Jenson | BAFTA nomination |
| 2005 | The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe | Andrew Adamson | Golden Globe & Grammy nominations |
| 2005 | Kingdom of Heaven | Ridley Scott | Scott collaboration #1 |
| 2012 | Prometheus | Ridley Scott | Themes only |
| 2014 | Exodus: Gods and Kings | Ridley Scott | Themes only |
| 2015 | The Martian | Ridley Scott | Scott collaboration #2 (full score) |
| 2018 | The Equalizer 2 | Antoine Fuqua | — |
| 2020 | Mulan | Niki Caro | Disney live-action |
| 2021 | The Last Duel | Ridley Scott | Scott collaboration #3 |
| 2021 | House of Gucci | Ridley Scott | Scott collaboration #4 |
| 2022– | The Gilded Age (Seasons 1–4) | Various | HBO; co-scored with brother Rupert Gregson-Williams |
| 2024 | Gladiator II | Ridley Scott | Scott collaboration #5; released on Decca Records |
| 2026 | Normal | Ben Wheatley | Co-scored with Ryder McNair |
| 2026 | The Dog Stars | Ridley Scott | Scott collaboration #8 (counting theme credits) |
The Dog Stars Official Score Tracklist
The official The Dog Stars score album was released digitally by Hollywood Records on August 28, 2026, alongside the film’s theatrical debut. The 17-track collection is composed entirely by Harry Gregson-Williams. Below is the complete, confirmed tracklist.
| # | Track Title | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hig’s First Flight | 2:23 |
| 2 | Getting Supplies | 2:54 |
| 3 | Roaches in Town | 2:55 |
| 4 | Visiting the Mennonites | 3:24 |
| 5 | Where’s Jasper? | 5:18 |
| 6 | Bangley | 3:39 |
| 7 | Cima | 2:56 |
| 8 | Up in the Air | 3:05 |
| 9 | Clearing the Way | 1:54 |
| 10 | Bangley’s Last Stand | 3:50 |
| 11 | They’ve Spotted You, Hig | 4:18 |
| 12 | Heading to Grand | 3:15 |
| 13 | Darlene | 2:34 |
| 14 | Back to Eerie | 3:01 |
| 15 | Mennonite Folk Song (Tony Lewis) | 1:15 |
| 16 | Hig Goes Home | 2:20 |
| 17 | World Without End (Priscilla Ahn) | 3:12 |
Source: Film Music Reporter, “The Dog Stars Soundtrack Album Details” (August 26, 2026).
Score Highlights
Now that the film and its 17-track score album have been released, listeners can hear Gregson-Williams’ full approach across the complete album. Based on confirmed production details and Gregson-Williams’ established working method with Ridley Scott, the following context is relevant:
Post-Apocalyptic Desolation and Human Longing. The story centers on Hig’s isolation in an abandoned Colorado airplane hangar — with only his dog, a hostile gunman, and an aging Cessna for company. This emotional landscape maps closely to the atmospheric, sparsely textured orchestral writing that defined Gregson-Williams’ approach on The Martian: sweeping yet intimate, underscoring human fragility against an indifferent world.
The Ridley Scott Sound Palette. Scott is known for working closely with his composers during the editing process. As Gregson-Williams has described, the director communicates through visual metaphor — discussing music in terms of tone, color, and texture. This creative dynamic has consistently produced scores that feel architecturally inseparable from the images, rather than simply underscoring them.
An Orchestral Core with Possible Atmospheric Textures. Given the film’s post-pandemic setting and Gregson-Williams’ background blending electronics with orchestral writing, the score is likely to combine conventional strings and brass with more ambient, textural elements — similar to the emotional tension he layered into The Last Duel.
Track titles on the released album — such as “Bangley’s Last Stand” and “They’ve Spotted You, Hig” — reflect the tension-driven back half of the story, while closing cues “Hig Goes Home” and “World Without End” (featuring vocalist Priscilla Ahn) land on a more reflective, elegiac note.
The Dog Stars Licensed Songs & Needle Drops
Beyond Gregson-Williams’ orchestral score, The Dog Stars features a number of licensed needle-drop songs, confirmed by NME on August 27, 2026. Notable names include Hozier, Van Morrison, Dean Martin, and Mick Jagger.
Confirmed In-Film Needle Drops
| Song Title | Artist |
|---|---|
| “Like Real People Do” | Hozier |
| “Heroes” | Extreme Music |
| “Tupelo Honey” | Van Morrison |
| “By and By” | Caamp |
| “Memories Are Made of This” | Dean Martin |
| “Charmaine” | Jack Nitzsche |
| “Fly Me to the Moon (In Other Words)” | Bart Howard |
| “Dashing White Sergeant” | Tony Lewis |
| “The Long Black Veil” | The Chieftains featuring Mick Jagger |
Correction note: Early promotional trailers for the film featured Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic” and Nine Inch Nails’ “The Day the World Went Away.” Neither of those specific tracks appears on the confirmed in-film needle-drop list above — the film’s actual Van Morrison cue is “Tupelo Honey,” and the Nine Inch Nails trailer cue does not appear to carry over into the release version of the film.
Source: NME, “Every song on the soundtrack to ‘The Dog Stars'” (August 27, 2026).
Where to Listen to The Dog Stars Soundtrack?
The Dog Stars opened in theaters August 28, 2026, distributed by 20th Century Studios. The official 17-track score album, composed by Harry Gregson-Williams, was released the same day by Hollywood Records and is available to stream on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music. Harry Gregson-Williams’ other film scores — including Gladiator II, The Martian, and The Chronicles of Narnia — remain available across the same platforms.
Related Reading
For more original film scores and where to stream them, visit our Movie Soundtrack hub, browse our full Streaming guide, or check out Harry Gregson-Williams’ earlier collaboration on the Shrek Soundtrack.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Who composed the score for The Dog Stars (2026)?
British composer Harry Gregson-Williams scored The Dog Stars, as confirmed by Film Music Reporter on April 16, 2026. He has an extensive collaborative history with director Ridley Scott, with The Dog Stars marking their eighth collaboration.
Is this Harry Gregson-Williams’ first time working with Ridley Scott?
No. The Dog Stars is their eighth collaboration. Prior Gregson-Williams/Scott projects include Kingdom of Heaven (2005), themes for Prometheus (2012) and Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014), The Martian (2015), The Last Duel (2021), House of Gucci (2021), and Gladiator II (2024).
Has the The Dog Stars score album been released?
Yes. The official 17-track score album was released digitally by Hollywood Records on August 28, 2026, the same day the film opened in theaters.
What songs appear in The Dog Stars?
Confirmed in-film needle drops (per NME, August 27, 2026) include Hozier’s “Like Real People Do,” Van Morrison’s “Tupelo Honey,” Dean Martin’s “Memories Are Made of This,” and The Chieftains featuring Mick Jagger on “The Long Black Veil,” among others. Note that early trailers had featured different tracks (Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic” and Nine Inch Nails’ “The Day the World Went Away”) that do not appear on the confirmed in-film list.
When does The Dog Stars release in theaters?
The Dog Stars opened nationwide on Friday, August 28, 2026, distributed by 20th Century Studios.
What is The Dog Stars about?
Adapted from Peter Heller’s novel, the film follows Hig (Jacob Elordi), a widowed civilian pilot surviving in a Colorado airplane hangar after a pandemic wipes out nearly the entire world’s population. When he intercepts a mysterious radio transmission during a flight in his Cessna, he embarks on a journey to find its source. Josh Brolin co-stars as Bangley, a taciturn, weapons-savvy gunman, and Margaret Qualley plays Cima.
Where can I stream The Dog Stars soundtrack?
The official 17-track score album is available now on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music, following its August 28, 2026 release by Hollywood Records.