At the John Williams Fan forum, Nightcap94 shared a brief tidbit about attending John Williams conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra.  Williams briefly mentions Star Wars: Episode VIII and his involvement (or lack thereof). The interesting bit comes from when Williams was about to play “Scherzo for X-wings” from The Force Awakens:

 “I told the producers I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do the next one, but told them I didn’t want anyone else doing it either.”  It was certainly meant as a joke, and got a great laugh.

Williams is clearly making light of his ego and not wanting to relinquish control of music he’s been in charge of since 1977. He’s recently been on official docs taking pride in the fact he’s done every theatrical live-action episode of Star Wars so far. It is clear there’s a real sense of satisfaction for Williams relating to his work on Star Wars. Back when the announcement came Williams would be doing VII, it was at first said he was doing the whole trilogy and then the text backed off it and just started mentioning VII. 

It sounds like Williams wants to do VIII but it’s becoming a burden at his age. At this point in his life he’s not conducting full concerts like he used to. I think when the time comes, if he feels up to it, he’s in. If he isn’t they’ll go another route. Fingers crossed! I love his work on The Force Awakens more and more every day.

If you’re a fan of Star Wars music check out JWFan.com as it’s a great resource for everything John Williams.

UPDATE:

Another fan who was at the concert in Philidelphia has weighed in on the exchange:

@MakingStarWars this guys Williams quote was way off. I was there and JW was introducing Rey’s Theme and he said he told producers…

— our spaceship moon (@spaceshipmoon) May 7, 2016

@MakingStarWars he didn’t want to score the next film. But that he loved daisy so much he didn’t want anyone to score for HER either

— our spaceship moon (@spaceshipmoon) May 7, 2016