John Williams’ Classic Superman Theme Coming To ‘Justice League’

As part of the massive makeover for “Justice League,” composer Junkie XL aka Tom Holkenborg, who scored “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” and was replaced by Danny Elfman., who has plenty of superhero experience under his belt having tuned up “Avengers: Age Of Ultron,” “Hulk,” “Spider-Man,” “Spider-Man 2,” “Batman,” and “Batman Returns.” The change makes sense given that Joss Whedon is putting a pretty heavy fingerprint on the picture. However, a blast from the past will be swinging into the movie too.

Among the many iconic themes John Williams has crafted, his “Theme From Superman (Main Title)” from Richard Donner‘s 1978 movie ranks right up there. It’s a triumphant track, and fits right into the “heart, humor, hope, heroics, and optimism” that Geoff Johns is chasing for all future DC Films efforts. So, it’ll be returning in “Justice League,” though not in the manner you might think. Hell, you might even miss it.

“There are a few little fan moments. I instated a moment of the Wonder Woman theme that Hans Zimmer did for ‘Batman v Superman,’ but I also had two minutes where I had the pleasure of saying, ‘Let’s do John Williams’ Superman’ and that for me was heaven, because now I have a melody to twist, and I’m using it in an actually very dark way, in a dark moment. It’s the kind of thing that some fans will notice. Some won’t. It’s a moment where we’re really not sure whose side he’s on,” Elfman explained to Billboard.

“The people at DC are starting to understand we’ve got these iconic bits from our past and that’s part of us, that’s part of our heritage — we shouldn’t run away from that. Contemporary thinking is, every time they reboot something, you have to start completely from scratch — which, of course, audiences will tell us again and again, is bullshit. Because the single-most surviving and loved theme in the world is ‘Star Wars,’ which they had the good sense to not dump for the reboots. And every time it comes back, the audience goes crazy,” he added.

As for the rest of “Justice League,” Elfman is taking an interesting approach, creating little motifs for each character, that he can then build from.

“I created very simple motifs. There are so many themes, you can’t just do a big theme for everything. So i created a motif for Flash, for Aquaman and Cyborg — but they’re very simple things, and [DC] understood. I said, ‘These things may never be used again, but I’m giving you all the components, should you wish to have things to build on.’ So they either will or they won’t, but that’s how I approach a project like this. You have to take the attitude that this is the beginning of a mythology and it all matters, it all comes to fruition, and with any luck they will,” he explained.

“I kept talking about the DNA of John Williams in this other theme — using the DNA of Batman in these other variations, which were not the Batman theme — but it all derives from that… Musical themes are like genes, you carry the DNA along and it creates these subtle connections which are perceived on an unconscious level. It’s funny because I’m terrible at puzzles, but I love musical puzzles. It’s a different part of my brain,” Elfman continued.

We’ll see how the puzzle comes together when “Justice League” arrives on November 17th. [via Batman News]