Feature films
Phase One
| Title | U.S. release date | Length | Composer(s) | Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iron Man: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | April 29, 2008 | 54:14 | Ramin Djawadi | Lionsgate Records |
| The Incredible Hulk: Original Motion Picture Score | June 13, 2008 | 1:50:55 | Craig Armstrong | Marvel Music |
| Iron Man 2: Original Motion Picture Score | July 20, 2010 | 1:12:01 | John Debney | Columbia Records |
| Thor (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) | May 3, 2011 | 1:11:53 | Patrick Doyle | Buena Vista Records Marvel Music |
| Captain America: The First Avenger — Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | July 19, 2011 | 1:11:53 | Alan Silvestri | |
| The Avengers (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) | May 1, 2012 | 1:04:25 | Hollywood Records Marvel Music |
Iron Man
Ramin Djawadi had been a fan of the character Iron Man as a child, saying that he always liked superheroes "that actually don't have any superpowers". After Iron Man director Jon Favreau's previous collaborator John Debney was unavailable to score the film, [1] Djawadi sought out the role himself. [2] Filming on Iron Man had already been completed by the time Djawadi joined the production, [3] and rather than wait until he could see the completed film, as he usually would, Djawadi began "playing with ideas" as soon as he saw the first trailer. [2] Due to time constraints and the final cut of the film changing until "the last possible minute", Djawadi had help with arrangements and additional cues from Hans Zimmer and Remote Control Productions. [2] Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, who makes a cameo appearance in the film, contributed guitar performances to the score. [4]
Favreau had a clear vision of heavy metal music and guitars for the project, [2] saying that Tony Stark was more of a rock star than a traditional superhero, and "there's Spider-Man , Batman and all these superhero movies. This superhero movie's different. I want to do something completely different, instead of going down the orchestral route. I want to do more rock and roll." [3] Djawadi subsequently composed most of the film's score on guitar, before arranging it for orchestra. Djawadi composed several themes for the character of Tony Stark, representing his different moods and attitudes, all inspired by Robert Downey Jr.'s performance. Other themes for the film are "not so much character based, but rather plot based that carry you through the movie". [2] Musicians John O'Brien and Rick Boston, frequent collaborators with Favreau, provided a big band-style arrangement of the Iron Man theme song from the 1966 cartoon The Marvel Super Heroes for a scene where Stark attends a casino. [5]
The Incredible Hulk
Director Louis Leterrier's first choice for composer on The Incredible Hulk was Craig Armstrong, once the arranger for Massive Attack, a band Leterrier was fond of and had collaborated with on the 2005 film Unleashed ; this choice had surprised Marvel, who often had directors asking for the likes of John Williams or Danny Elfman, and the studio was hesitant due to Armstrong's lack of experience writing for action films. Leterrier listened to Armstrong's previous music while planning and editing the film, [6] and music editor Peter Myles used Armstrong's work and similar music by others in the film's temp score. Armstrong chose not to listen to the temp, or watch Ang Lee's Hulk , before composing the score, which he began in his home in Glasgow, Scotland, before moving to Remote Control in Los Angeles to be closer to the production. The score was recorded in four days, resulting in little time for adjustments on the day, forcing Armstrong to "create very specific demos" that were "completely accurate" for Matt Dunkley to orchestrate. Leterrier favored an orchestral sound over electronics, "because he didn't want the work to sound dated so quickly", though Armstrong did electronically enhance a lot of the orchestral recordings. Additionally, "about half the score" features various ethnic instruments performed by Pete Lockett. [7]
When Armstrong first began working in Glasgow, he did so with three sequences which he called "the keys to opening up" the score: the Abomination and the Hulk's alley fight, "which was complex because of its choreography"; Bruce Banner and Betty Ross' reunion, "the romantic element of the score"; and the Hulk and Betty in the cave, which "combines The Hulk Theme and when Hulk and Betty are together, so the Bruce and Betty Theme was totally different than my music for The Hulk and Betty". For the Hulk's theme, Armstrong compared it to Williams' main theme for Jaws , with "simple notation" that "summed up the complete concept". The theme features a bass C note, with string glissandos up an octave and then back down to the original note. Other themes include Bruce Banner's theme, for "when he's alone and searching for the cure"; two theme's for the Abomination, a dark one for the soldier Emil Blonsky and a more aggressive one for when he becomes a monster himself (the latter is combined with the Hulk theme when those character's fight); the love theme for Banner and Betty Ross; and a scientific theme, for "when they are trying to crack the codes of the Hulk". Joe Harnell's "The Lonely Man" theme for the 1978 The Incredible Hulk television series is briefly quoted in the cue "Bruce Goes Home", with Armstrong playing the piano for the piece himself. [7]
Iron Man 2
For the sequel to Iron Man, Debney returned to work with Favreau, replacing Djawadi as composer. [8] Debney called his score for Iron Man 2 "quite different in many ways from the last score. This score while employing much guitar and more contemporary elements, it is also much bigger and darker in tone and scope." [9] He described his music as "Led Zeppelin with an orchestra", [10] and elaborated that "The two scores share a common pedigree [of rock-and-roll and electric guitar] but are generally different. They are different scores with different results." [1] Debney was not influenced by the AC/DC soundtrack for the film, feeling that "the songs and score play two very different roles in the film", and unlike the previous score he used a large choir for some of the film's more dramatic moments. Morello returned to again contribute guitar performances for the film, this time collaborating with Debney to write some of the music itself, with Debney first composing the score, and then working with Morello on the guitar parts and "textures". [9]
Debney called Iron Man 2 "odd in that there were not a lot of places where a true superhero theme could be played. Tony Stark is uber cool even as Iron Man, so, musically, we couldn't state a full-blown superhero theme. The strains of Iron Man's theme are heard only in a few spots by design. I'm hoping with future films, Iron Man might get his full-blown theme played aggressively." [1] For instance, Debney recorded several different versions of the score for scenes where Stark puts on the Iron Man suit, each with "different portions of the theme fleshed out or left out". What was ultimately chosen "was less thematic. It was sort of a groove with a little bit of French horn. Maybe that was the right choice, but it was a difficult decision. It was difficult to find the areas in the movie where we could let Tony be a superhero." He continued, "There were moments where I wanted to play a scene broadly or make a love scene out of it but we were never able to go there", such as for the end of the film where "Tony finally kisses Pepper ... there were a couple of versions I did that were really gorgeous and lush but it just didn't fit. It's a different kind of movie because they kiss and then all of a sudden the mood is broken. It's just the nature of this character." Debney felt that this process led to the score being "watered down and mashed up a little bit" from what he originally intended. However, Debney did not feel the same about his music for the villain, Ivan Vanko, which he described as a personal "joy". He said that Favreau "gave me a great opportunity to get into [the opening] scene and learn [Vanko]'s circumstances and to play sincerely sad music for him and the relationship he had with his father. Jon gave me the opportunity to morph that and turn it into something really dark and twisted. For me that was the most satisfactory part of the score and the film". [10] For Vanko's theme, the choir sang in Russian to "capture the dark Russian soul" of the character. [9]
Thor
Director Kenneth Branagh's frequent composing collaborator Patrick Doyle called Thor "the most commercially high profile film I have done since Frankenstein ", and noted that "Marvel Studios have a brand in Thor. Their interest, like mine, was for strong thematic material that would capture the essence of that brand." Branagh and Doyle wanted the score to have a contemporary feel, while Doyle "was also eager for the score to contain a strong sense of melody, which [Branagh] responds to in my work. He was keen, as indeed I was, that the grand images were not in any way hyperbolized, and that there would be a balance between playing with, and against the images." To distinguish between the realms of Asgard and Earth musically, Doyle used "broader orchestral strokes and thicker orchestration" to depict the grandeur and beauty of Asgard, and more "contemporary, electronic and percussion driven" music for the Earth scenes, incorporating the then-popular ostinato technique "in a symphonic way whenever appropriate". [11]
Doyle took inspiration for the score from his own Celtic background, which he described as "very intertwined" with the Norse mythology that Thor is based on, as well as the works of Richard Wagner. He found the main challenge of the score to be composing a "superhero theme" for the titular character, and a second main theme representing Asgard, the latter of which Doyle wanted "to come across as an old folk song from a Celtic world". He noted that the Asgard theme develops throughout the film to also represent traveling, action, and fighting. Of the other themes he composed for the film, Doyle also noted a theme for Jotunheim, another world visited in the film. On specific instrumentation for the character of Thor, Doyle jokingly noted that a piccolo would be inappropriate, and that a character with such a big personality and physicality required "a slightly more robust set of musical instruments: horns, low brass, slow strings etc." To represent the character's longing for home after he is banished from Asgard to Earth, Doyle used a cor anglais, which he felt also captured Thor's pathos and nobility. [11]
Captain America: The First Avenger
By February 2011, Marvel chose Alan Silvestri to provide the score for Captain America: The First Avenger after composing the "iconic scores" for Back to the Future and Forrest Gump , over a number of other composers including Michael Giacchino, John Powell, and Henry Jackman. [12] [13] Silvestri then met with director Joe Johnston to spot the film, and had seven and a half weeks to compose the score. Johnston wanted a full orchestral score "to allow for movement" between the film's two genres: a period piece and a futuristic, high-tech sci-fi film. Silvestri noted the appropriateness of the fact that his style of music, which he describes as "romantically heroic", is often described by others as "patriotic", as well as his tendency to use brass instruments, which can "compete sonically and give the music some kind of presence where it might not have any", something necessary during the film's action sequences. [14]
In Silvestri's first meeting with Johnston, the latter raised his desire for a central theme. On this, Silvestri said, "To have some kind of musical signature either for a character or some aspect of the film, truly holds the score together. A theme makes the music feel like one piece in a sense." For this central theme, a fanfare for Captain America, Silvestri did not look to any past film scores in particular, instead looking to "certain kinds of elements that we have, over time, associated with that kind of heroic statement", such as the percussive elements, intervals, and brass instrumentation of Aaron Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man". He noted that Captain America is a "very bold and bombastic idea, so you don't need to inflate that in any way. But that doesn't mean you have to play those elements down either", adding that he felt Captain America was fleshed out more as a character simply by facing "a really bad guy" in the Red Skull in a similar way to Luke Skywalker's development in the presence of Darth Vader. On the Red Skull himself, Silvestri looked to take the character seriously and "play him as bad", but allowed for more compassion for the character when he talks about his tortured past. [14] He also introduced a theme for the Tesseract, Red Skull's energy source. [15]
The Avengers
In November 2011, Marvel announced that Silvestri would return to compose the score for the crossover film Marvel's The Avengers . Silvestri found it helpful to have already been part of the "Marvel process", which gave him a "sense of how Marvel treats their characters, cares for them, and a bit of what that Marvel post-production process feels like". [16] Director Joss Whedon preferred an "old-school ... old-fashioned" score to using pre-existing songs, which he felt makes "the moment [become] about the song". He called Silvestri "letter perfect for this movie because he can give you the heightened emotion ... but he can also be extraordinarily cue and character specific, which I love." [17] Silvestri did not want the score to have the same "military" feeling as Captain America: The First Avengers's, as Stark says in the film "We're not soldiers." However, Whedon did want aspects of the film to resemble a war film, and "there are times where [the Avengers are] absolutely functioning as this paramilitary unit", so Silvestri did add some "military seasoning" in places. Both Whedon and Silvestri wanted the score to build throughout the film, to climax in the final battle. For the aftermath of that fight, Silvestri uses a simple guitar piece to give the audience a rest with a "complete sonic break" from what comes before in the film. He then segues back into the full orchestra for the end of the film. For a sequence where the villain Loki attacks while a string quartet plays Franz Schubert's String Quartet No. 13 in A minor, the editors had already overlaid the piece with a temp track for when Loki "starts to do his thing". Silvestri expanded on this for the final score, having the music transition from the onscreen quartet to the entire orchestra playing the same piece when the fighting begins. [18]
On composing for a film with such a large cast, Silvestri said, "I've worked on films where there have been a number of stars and certainly worked on films where there have been characters of equal weight in terms of their level of importance and profile in the film, but this one is somewhat extreme in that regard because each of these characters has their own world ... the film is really about the coming together of these characters, which implies that there is this entity called the Avengers which really has to be representative of all of them together." [16] Later elaborating on this, Silvestri said, "We knew that if we were to have a theme for every character in this movie, the music would get very clunky and intrusive. So I stayed away from all of that." Instead, Marvel and Whedon wanted a central, definable "Avengers" theme for the film, which Silvestri wanted to have a heroic aspect and a grandness, but also be "generated from that scene when they're all gathering for the last great battle ... the interesting thing about it as the 'big moment; of the score is that they're not doing anything. They're standing there, which allowed me to move away from the idea of it being an action moment." [18] Silvestri did ultimately use some other themes in the score: he developed a motif for Loki as the central villain of the film, a "low, ominous sequence of chords, [used] when his presence is either visible or implied"; he reprised his Captain America theme, for when that character "makes his entrance, or when he's in the middle of a fight scene ... yet not using it fully" as "a little of his theme goes a long, long way", and his Tesseract theme, including over the opening logos of the film; and midway through Silvestri's work writing the score, Whedon had seen some completed scenes featuring the Black Widow and "wanted to explore music that was a bit more thematic for her", so Silvestri introduced "a lonely, plucked theme with an Eastern European flavor" to define the character. [15] [18] [19] For the other major characters, Silvestri used instrumentation to differentiate their scenes, for instance Iron Man "always has the more contemporary, rhythmic component to a lot of his music." [15]
Phase Two
| Title | U.S. release date | Length | Composer(s) | Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iron Man 3 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) | April 30, 2013 | 1:15:53 | Brian Tyler | Hollywood Records Marvel Music |
| Thor: The Dark World (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) | November 12, 2013 | 1:17:11 | ||
| Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) | April 1, 2014 | 1:14:32 | Henry Jackman | |
| Guardians of the Galaxy (Original Score) | July 29, 2014 | 1:04:34 | Tyler Bates | |
| Avengers: Age of Ultron (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) | April 28, 2015 | 1:17:26 | Brian Tyler and Danny Elfman | |
| Ant-Man (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) | July 17, 2015 | 1:05:20 | Christophe Beck |
Iron Man 3
With Iron Man 3 featuring a post-Avengers Tony Stark, Marvel and incoming director Shane Black wanted to move away from the rock sound of the previous Iron Man films, [20] and towards "a score that echoed the classics of super hero film history", [21] for which they approached Brian Tyler, a Marvel fan whose previous music had often been used in temp scores for other films by the studio. Tyler stated that Marvel was interested in him for his more thematic work from the likes of The Greatest Game Ever Played , Annapolis , and Partition , rather than his "modern" action music such as that for The Fast and the Furious films and Battle: Los Angeles , and wanted him to combine the energy of the latter with the sensibilities of the former. In addition to the classic orchestra, Tyler recorded metallic sounds such as anvils being hit to add an element of "iron" to the score. As a nod to the previous Iron Man composer's use of guitars, Tyler added instances of the orchestra performing Black Sabbath-like riffs throughout the film. [20]
Marvel specifically asked Tyler for a new and different, "really identifiable" theme for Iron Man to represent his "serious" new role in the MCU as a "legitimate superhero", which Tyler described as a thematic reboot. To create a "bigger and grander" sound than the previous Iron Man scores, Tyler took influence from the works of John Williams, Alex North, and John Barry, among others. Tyler composed the new theme on piano, but always intended it to be a "march and anthem" with a large brass component. Tyler also used the same theme played on a harp to represent Stark's sad emotional state after he is stranded without the Iron Man suit, [20] and created a "wild 1960s style" arrangement of it for the film's main titles which had reminded Tyler of a typical police series from that era. [21] [22] For the Extremis technology, Tyler wanted a motif with a magical quality as he felt that it was technology so futuristic that it seemed like magic, and so looked to Williams' "The Well of the Souls" cue from Raiders of the Lost Ark for inspiration, giving the motif a spiritual feel. The idea of spirituality also extends to the Mandarin's theme; Tyler noted the ambiguity of the character in terms of ethnicity and culture, and how he appears in the film as a "be-all" terrorist, as well as his role as a fanatical, "quasi-religious leader" comparable to Jim Jones. [20] The theme ultimately combines religious music from multiple cultures—including Monastic, Gothic, and Christian chants and choirs, and sounds from the Middle-East and Asia—and was primarily played on the bansuri and bazantar. [20] [22]
Thor: The Dark World
Branagh chose not to return for the sequel to Thor, [23] and was replaced as director by Alan Taylor. [24] By August 2012, Doyle had discussed potentially returning to score the film with Taylor, [25] however, Taylor's first choice for composer was Carter Burwell, [26] who signed on to Thor: The Dark World by April 2013. [27] A month later, Burwell left the film in what Marvel described as a "creative split", [28] and Tyler signed on to replace him that June. [29] President of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige later explained that Marvel had approved of Taylor's choice based on Burwell's collaborations with the Coen brothers, but the studio ultimately felt that Burwell was not the right fit for the film, and had to make an early decision to replace the composer due to the relatively short time left for post-production on the film; Feige admitted that if there was "time for trial and error, it might have worked" out. Tyler was chosen by Marvel to replace Burwell based on the positive experience the company had working with him on Iron Man 3. [26]
On differentiating his scores for Iron Man 3 and The Dark World, Tyler said that they were at the opposite ends of the "superhero spectrum", and so even though he used full orchestras for both, "the actual writing of the notes and the harmonies and all that was different." [30] He later elaborated that "The feel of Thor is a very different than Iron Man. Yet they live in the same universe. For me, it's like somehow Indiana Jones showed up on the Enterprise, or something." [31] Tyler described The Dark World as "science fiction meeting classic medieval war", [30] and saw it as a cross between Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings —"there's spaceships and lasers ... but within it they wear capes and fight with swords and ride horses ... those were not elements really present as much in the first one. So it required something different. I think my score for Thor: The Dark World would have been out of place in the first film and vice versa." [32] Azam Ali, who collaborated with Tyler on Children of Dune , and Tori Letzler are featured vocalists for the score; Tyler felt that their contributions provided "something emotional" to the score. [33] [34]
Rather than have Tyler reprise Doyle's themes from the first film, Marvel wanted Tyler to create a new, post-Avengers Thor theme as he did for Tony Stark in Iron Man 3. [20] [32] Tyler described his new theme as mature, regal, and epic, and noted that the romantic elements with the character Jane Foster become "kind of melancholy" for the sequel, "because she's this mortal that he's fallen for, which could not be further from his side of the train tracks". [32] The theme for Thor evolved from a more "pageant"-like theme that represents Asgard in the film, [35] which has a much more lived-in feeling than it did in the first film. Tyler also introduced a new theme for post-Avengers Loki to reflect his increasingly complicated personality and storyline, [22] performed on a harp to play against expectations. [36] Despite not reprising Doyle's themes, Tyler looked to pay homage to his general style and sound from the first film during quieter moments like dialogue scenes. [22] He also quotes Silvestri's Captain America theme when that character makes a brief cameo appearance. [22] [37]
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
When Henry Jackman was in the running to score Captain America: The First Avenger, he had written "a full-on traditional symphonic, Americana score" as proof-of-concept for Marvel, which he looked to return to when Marvel asked him to score the sequel, Captain America: The Winter Soldier . He felt that Silvestri had used that same style to great effect in the first film, but found that the second film "could not have been more different, and the score was not suitable, so I had to rewrite it". [13] Jackman said of his work on the film, "it's 50% production and all the tricks I've learnt from spending years in the record industry but then it's also got the kind of injection of symphonic, thematic, heroic music that all kind of merges into one musical, and hopefully coherent piece". [38] He described the film as aesthetically "way closer to something like Dark Knight Rises than it is to say the Richard Donner's Superman , or the traditional, nostalgic superhero film." [13] Some of Silvestri's work from the first film is tracked into the opening of the sequel, which Jackman said "reminds everyone where we left off. This character is about to get hurled into a completely different environment, so it's a nice way to tie the two films together." [39] Jackman reprises Silvestri's Captain America theme from The First Avenger at the beginning of the film. [40]
Jackman first created three pieces of music for directors Anthony and Joe Russo: a modern Captain America theme; a six-to-seven-minute suite for the Winter Soldier; and a track representing Hydra. [38] [41] Concerning Captain America, Jackman struggled to balance having "enough theme so that you've got something heroic to cling onto, but not so much that it's just becoming nostalgic and irrelevant", and stated that in the third act "the more melodic, the more lyrical, the more thematic element [starts] to come through". The one note Feige gave Jackman on the score was asking him to embrace "those moments that are emotional or historical or nostalgic", such as when the character visits his own Smithsonian exhibit. For those, Jackman took some inspiration from the works of Aaron Copland. [41] Jackman described the Winter Soldier as "a mechanized, violent, relentless, nihilistic beast that just destroys everything in its path", so approaching the character in a Wagnerian way would be "inappropriate ... instead [I decided] to embrace it and start exploiting all these other tricks I've learned in working in the record industry and making drum and bass records." [13] In the Winter Soldier suite, "the strings only show up for the last minute. It is violent—it's got screaming and banging and it's dystopian and dysfunctional. Much closer to a modern electronic thing than anything orchestral." [13] [38] Jackman spent ten days just processing vocal recordings to give the theme a sense of "tortured, time-stretched human cries of someone who has been so processed that it's become mechanized at the same time but you can still hear the human in there". He also tried to give the piece an arc, where the human elements get more "revealed toward the end of the film" as Captain America and the audience come to learn who the Winter Soldier is and care about him. [42] When Jackman played the suite for the directors, they loved the unique and non-film music sound, and asked that Jackman not sanitize or water it down for the film—Joe said, "I really want to hear that in the movie and not just 20% of" it. [38] For Hydra, Jackman wanted to move away from the "Wagnerian symphonic baddie music" of the first film, and "come up with a sinister tonality that didn't feel like the muhahahaha of an arch villain, because the sinister nature of the neo-fascist within the film is modern, credible and politically contemporary." [41] Jackman also introduces a motif for the Falcon. [43]
Guardians of the Galaxy
As he did on his previous films, director James Gunn brought his composer Tyler Bates onto Guardians of the Galaxy in pre-production so Bates could write music ahead of time for Gunn to film to. [44] Gunn provided material such as "pre-video sequences" for Bates to use while writing the music, [45] and then "during action scenes and huge dramatic moments we blare the score on set so that the cast, crew, and camera can move in harmony with the music. Music is often an afterthought in film, but never for us." [44] Bates then re-wrote most of the score once the film was being edited. Bates found the score to be his "most demanding", and explained that "at least half the cues in the movie have more than 500 tracks of audio", consisting of multiple orchestral passes, choirs, overdubs, and other instrumentation. [45] On working in with all of the songs that Gunn put in the film's soundtrack, Bates said, "The music is literally a different personality in the movie, has a different function than the songs. It exists more, not only to be propulsive in the action sequences and to set up some of the comedic moments, but really to underscore the emotional depth of the characters." [46]
Bates said on using themes and motifs in the score, "Very few movies that are made these days are fantastical enough to sustain huge, bold identifiable themes. Even with the majority of the comic-book films, they have a tendency to be steeped in a realism that would be disturbed or interrupted by highly emotive, melodic themes, and it seems like a lot of the stuff going in these films is propulsive and somewhat cold emotionally." He felt that Guardians of the Galaxy did not fit this model, and "unabashedly embraced leitmotifs for the array of cosmic characters" that appear in it. [47] Bates described creating a new main theme for a Marvel franchise as "the most rewarding aspect of stepping into a movie like this". [46] Gunn asked for "something kickass that a 4-year-old would remember", and Bates came up with the theme by "noodling" on an electric guitar. [47] The villain Ronan's theme is quoted in full only once in the film, as Bates and Gunn wanted him to be more serious and scary which they felt would be undermined by a loud, melodic theme. [48] His presence is generally represented with tones "chock full of low-brass" and synths. [47] [48] Bates has "some spongy synthesizers pulsing through" the motif for Groot, which he developed in pre-production. Bates said that he would have infused the score with more of those electronic elements if it was not for the "frenetic working process" on the film. [46]
Avengers: Age of Ultron
After scoring both Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World, Brian Tyler was rumored for several months to be scoring The Avengers sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron , before officially signing on to the film in March 2014. [49] He said that his template for the film was game changing scores such as those for Star Wars, Superman, and Raiders of the Lost Ark, feeling that "You have to build in nostalgia and do it upfront so you can relate to it." [50] In February 2015, Danny Elfman was revealed to have composed additional music for the score, [51] ultimately receiving co-composer credit. [52] On working with Elfman, Tyler said, "The movie is such a large canvas that there were parts that really benefited from his kind of voice. But also, it needed to all fit together and hang together seamlessly, and that was something we worked really hard on doing." [53] Tyler and Elfman strove to orchestrate, record, and mix their music similarly. [54] Tyler wrote much more quiet and emotional music for Age of Ultron "than you would've thought ... you can go deeper in a second movie because in the first movie you really have to set everyone up". He gave Hulk's farewell to Black Widow, Pietro Maximoff's sacrifice, and the time spent at Hawkeye's farm as examples of this. [55]
Tyler stated that his usual approach to taking over a franchise from another composer is to "try to take from what's before me and also forge ahead". [53] So, though Tyler "was really married to" the idea of reprising Silvestri's Avengers theme from the first film in the sequel and wanted to keep in-line with "the language of what Alan had done in The Avengers", [55] he instead began by composing a "classic, epic" suite of his own for the film. Titled "Rise Together", Tyler said that it "is much more about pageantry and a march, and there's a slight militaristic aspect. I tend to stay away from that, but I felt that that, combined with a choir, would make them feel larger than life. And certainly, this is when they're 'rising together,' so you need to have that unifying heroic theme with them." [53] Elfman then took Silvestri's theme and "pulled it into" the new material for the sequel to make a "kind of a hybrid" theme for the film. [56] Tyler also reprised his own Iron Man and Thor themes in the score, as well as previous Captain America material, "in order to create a similar musical universe", [50] especially since those character's post-Avengers solo films "set up" Age of Ultron. [55]
Tyler composed several other new themes for the film, to represent the titular villain Ultron; the relationship that develops between Black Widow and the Hulk; and the new Avenger Vision. [55] Tyler wanted Ultron's theme to sound "almost heroic", since Ultron thinks he is saving the world, "but dissonant and tweaky enough" to reflect that "he doesn't quite have it right" and is still a villain. The melody is simple so that it is easy to remember, but starts flat by one note to make the theme sound slightly "off", is played on two pianos with one of them out of tune, and when the main phrase is repeated the last note is played "ahead by a beat" the second time; "not only out of tune, but out of time." The theme also features an artificially distorted guitar to give it a machine-like tone. [57] Tyler described the Black Widow/Hulk relationship as an "unrequited romance and this kind of sad situation" with "the curse of the Hulk being a barrier between [the two characters] and what they really want. And so that melody, that had to be almost like a lullaby, but broken." [55] Tyler wrote the "lullaby" to be understated, and it is often played on piano or cello. [54] For the Vision's theme, Tyler "wanted to go for something that was underneath and delicate, and had kind of a wispy nature to it, in a sense—and almost towards the romantic". [53] He tried to reflect the character's role as a messianic figure of sorts, and Ultron's intended redemption for Earth, [54] and said, "you don't really know what side he's on. You have this guy who's literally two minutes old and is born in this movie with this knowledge of humanity. It's Machiavellian in a way." The theme is an adagio that is "not your typical bombast, look how muscley this guy is; it's more of a mystery." [58] To represent the character's youth and questions about himself, it features string glissandos that constantly change between chords during his introduction, and often momentarily settle on uncertain notes and sounds. [54] Tyler constantly instructed the orchestra to play quieter, "trying to say more with less for Vision". [53] The music for the visions that the Scarlet Witch gives the Avengers pays homage to scores from the 1950s, with Tyler using a "randomly played" vibraphone and strings such as a harp to create a "dreaminess" and "hypnotic effect". [54]
Ant-Man
Steven Price was announced as the composer for Ant-Man by director Edgar Wright, who he had previously worked with, in February 2014, [59] but they both left the film that March. [60] In January 2015, Christophe Beck was hired to score the film, having previously worked with the new director, Peyton Reed. [61] Beck and Reed began experimenting with "high concept" electronic music to create a "glitched out, digital, electronic, skittery score" that could represent the insect and technology aspects of the film, but it was ultimately "too weird and quirky ... almost weird for its own sake". Feige asked that they instead take "the classic symphonic approach with big themes and bold brass", [62] which Beck did with the unique twist of "a sneaky sense of fun since it is, after all, not only a superhero movie, but also a heist comedy." [63] That heist genre gave Beck "a little latitude to use a rhythm section and something a little bit more funky and jazzy and groovy that I wouldn't otherwise have been able to get away with." [62]
Beck composed two main themes for the film: the Ant-Man superhero theme and a theme for family. In addition to using the traditional brass for the Ant-Man theme, Beck used an alto flute and violas, which he felt had "a little bit of the sound world of the heist movie and the spy movie, the old James Bond sound." For a sequence where Ant-Man surfs down a water pipe on a raft made of ants, Beck began arranging the theme as a "regular action cue" but found it "a little too intense for the scene". Reed wanted it to have more of a sense of fun, and Beck eventually wrote a piece evoking the "classic guitar surf music", but with the orchestra rather than a guitar. The family theme represents the film's two father-daughter relationships, between Scott Lang and his daughter Cassie Lang, and between Hank Pym and his daughter Hope van Dyne. [62] Beck also intended for it to "signify the emergence of Hope as something of a hero herself". Additionally, the villainous Yellowjacket has "a more traditional theme, presented in traditional fashion, but augmented with processed electronics to convey the crazed and obsessed nature of the character". Of the many ant species featured in the film, Reed and Beck felt that the bullet ants deserved their "own identity"; since the species is primarily indigenous to South America, Beck used ancient Aztec drums and tribal flutes to give them a "regional flavor". [64] For a scene where Ant-Man infiltrates the Avengers compound, Beck quotes Silvestri's Avengers theme and Jackman's Falcon motif from Winter Soldier. [43] [64]
Phase Three
Captain America: Civil War
The Russo brothers confirmed in August 2014 that Jackman would return to score Captain America: Civil War . [65] In July 2015, Jackman noted the industrial elements of his Winter Soldier suite from the previous film was an indication of what the new score would sound like, but did caution that "it's just a jumping off point since the Russos are looking for something new—similar with a twist." [66] Once Jackman read the script for the film, he realized that the "movie tonally was so different to the second one ... it's sort of half Captain America, half an Avengers film in a way" and so Jackman ultimately wrote a much more symphonic and orchestral score than he did for Winter Soldier. This culminates in the final fight between Captain America, Winter Soldier, and Iron Man, the music for which Jackman described as "somewhat operatic and ... almost classical in its style ... some of the harmony and the orchestration really does get quite classical." [67]
Concerning the central conflict of the film, Jackman found that he was in "constant danger of tipping it too much" and pushing the audience to one side or the other, so he composed a new main theme for the film to represent that Civil War, which he called "a generic theme to balance everything out", [68] and "a narrative theme toward which all the characters can gravitate. It wrapped them all up and it helped to bind the movie together rather than do endless disparate themes." [69] The second major theme in the film is a thriller theme, that appears whenever the central mystery surrounding several character's pasts and Zemo's plan is teased or explored. It consists of a flute motif tied to the Winter Soldier's Russian handlers and a rising adagio that represents Zemo's twisted determination, and was inspired by the works of Jerry Goldsmith. [70] Of the character themes from previous films that Jackman did use, "where appropriate", [69] he evolved them to fit the tone and style of the new score. Captain America's theme could not be too prominent or heroic, as that would suggest that he was the hero of the film when the Russos were trying to create an ambiguity surrounding the main conflict—this does change throughout the film though, becoming more heroic when Captain America "turns out to be right all along". For the Winter Soldier, Jackman took a "rising string rhyme" that was buried underneath "the chaos and the industrial stuff" in the end of the character's suite from The Winter Soldier, and developed that into a much more symphonic theme for the character, in keeping with his much more human portrayal in this film. [70] [71]
Jackman also wrote motifs for the major characters introduced in the film: Spider-Man, Black Panther, and Zemo. [67] Spider-Man's motif has a small arc to match that character's few appearances, being introduced very gently as the "somewhat confused, slightly tender" Peter Parker first appears, followed by "the seed of his heroism" when he is recruited for the Avengers, and finally a "full-blown version" plays when he fights alongside the other heroes. [72] For Black Panther, Jackman used a combination of African woodwind instruments whenever the character talks about his ancestors, while muted trombones "brought his character into the grandeur of the symphony orchestra, but there's a slightly vengeful, serrated sound to muted trombones if you pick the right kind of mood". Zemo's personal theme was performed on "a lot of these rather unusual tuned bells" that gave him an "otherly sound", as well as a cimbalon to represent his Eastern European roots. [67]
Doctor Strange
Having known Kevin Feige for some time, Michael Giacchino spent years working with him on potentially scoring one of Marvel's films. When he heard of development on Doctor Strange , Giacchino was particularly interested in working on the film, feeling that it would have more of an independent film feel than other Marvel films. He contacted Feige, "and that ball just rolled very quickly downhill, and I was on" the film. [73] Giacchino revealed his involvement with Doctor Strange in May 2016. [74] Director Scott Derrickson called the score "magic in the literal sense of the word" and said that Giacchino "is doing what good scorers do, which is he is not just creating music that supports the images, he's adding a third thing to the movie. It becomes something new with his music in there that it didn't have with temp music." [75]
For the score, Giacchino felt no pressure to align his music with the style or tone of previous MCU films, and "in fact they encouraged me to go in my direction, so there were never any handcuffs put on me." In regards to the title character, Giacchino felt the key "was getting inside of him—not worrying so much about the magic stuff, more just thinking about who he was as a person, what he lost and then how that loss affected him. For me it's a very sad story, and a lot of the music has this very melancholy feel to it." [73] To particularly differentiate the score, and help create a "mystical mood", Giacchino used a harpsichord and an electric sitar. [76]
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Bates was confirmed to be returning for the second Guardians film, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 , in August 2015, [77] and began composing by that December for Gunn to once again film to. [78] On using this technique again on the sequel, Bates said, "We've gone even further down that road ... I would rather establish the DNA of our music prior to post-production when everything's so frenetic so that we can work on themes and establish melodies that are original to the film." [58] Bates reprises his theme for the Guardians.
Spider-Man: Homecoming
While promoting Doctor Strange in early November 2016, Feige accidentally revealed that Giacchino would be returning to compose the score for Spider-Man: Homecoming . Giacchino soon confirmed this himself. [79] Giacchino reprises Silvestri's Avengers theme.
Thor: Ragnarok
By August 2016, Mark Mothersbaugh was set to score the third Thor film. [80] Mothersbaugh reprises Patrick Doyle's themes from Thor and Brian Tyler's themes from Thor: The Dark World and Avengers: Age of Ultron, as well as Joe Harnell's "The Lonely Man" theme from The Incredible Hulk series.
Black Panther
Wanting to put a "personal stamp" on Black Panther and differentiate it from other MCU films, director Ryan Coogler looked to bring back several of his previous collaborators to work on the film, including composer Ludwig Göransson, whom he had worked with on Fruitvale Station and Creed . [81] The film's score would later go on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Score and the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media.
Avengers: Infinity War
Silvestri announced in June 2016 that he would be returning to score Avengers: Infinity War . [82] Initially, Silvestri had reservations about writing the film's score, feeling it would be difficult to collaborate with two directors and work towards a single vision. During their first meeting, Silvestri discussed reprising themes from characters throughout the series; having last worked on The Avengers in 2012, many characters had received new themes and motifs since then. Ultimately, Silvestri and the Russo brothers opted not to reprise most of these themes, feeling it would make the score too distracting. Nevertheless, Silvestri reprised Göransson's theme for Black Panther when the Avengers head to Wakanda, [83] and went on to reprise numerous character themes in Endgame, including those for Captain America, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange and Captain Marvel.
Despite not reprising many themes, Silvestri does bring back several of his own original motifs. Perhaps the most notable is his Avengers theme, which was used extensively in the film's marketing. The theme is reused sparingly in the film, typically during major moments such as Captain America's return in "Help Arrives" and Thor's arrival in Wakanda in "Forge". Silvestri also reprised his theme for the Tesseract, which was used numerous times in Captain America: The First Avenger and The Avengers. In Infinity War, the Tesseract motif is repurposed into a theme for the Infinity Stones in general. Silvestri initially considered making separate themes for each stone, but repurposed the original theme instead. The theme returns numerous times in the score, such as in "No More Surprises", "Family Affairs", "A Small Price" and "Morning After". A brief statement of Silvestri's original Captain America theme is reprised at the end of "Field Trip".
Silvestri introduced several new themes for the film's score, most notably a theme for Thanos. Rather than create a bombastic, evil theme for Thanos, Silvestri instead composed a dark, brooding theme that's first introduced in "Travel Delays", and is woven through the rest of the score as a texture to establish Thanos's threat. The theme also bears slight semblance, perhaps in its instrumentation, to Loki's theme from The Avengers. [84]
Ant-Man and the Wasp
In June 2017, Reed confirmed that Beck would be returning to score Ant-Man and the Wasp . [85]
Captain Marvel
In June 2018, Pinar Toprak announced that she would score Captain Marvel , the first female composer for the MCU. [86] Toprak reprises Silvestri's Avengers theme.
Avengers: Endgame
Silvestri announced in June 2016 that he would be returning to score Avengers: Endgame . [82] The score for Endgame would become the first Avengers film to reprise the established themes for Doctor Strange, Captain Marvel, and Ant-Man. "More Problems", a track from Pinar Toprak's Captain Marvel score, was reprised for when Danvers destroys Thanos's ship. As he did with Infinity War, Silvestri reprised the Infinity Stones motif in "The How Works", "So Many Stairs", "In Plain Sight" and "Gotta Get Out". The thematic material in "No More Surprises" from Infinity War is reprised in "I Figured It Out" to depict the relationship between Tony and Morgan Stark. Silvestri reused significant parts of Infinity War tracks "A Small Price", "Even For You" and "Morning After" in Endgame tracks "Destiny Fulfilled", "Not Good" and "Gotta Get Out", respectively, to mirror Gamora and Black Widow's sacrifices. A dramatic variant of "Porch", the violin piece from the end of Infinity War, plays as Thor leaves Thanos's homestead to depict how Thanos's victory remains. [87]
In addition, Silvestri reprises various themes from The Avengers as well. Parts of "A Promise" are repurposed in "One Shot". The ending of "Don't Take My Stuff" is repurposed in "I Can't Risk This", when Future Cap fights Past Cap. Black Widow's motif, which debuted in tracks such as "Red Ledger", "Interrogation" and "A Little Help", is briefly reprised for the opening of "I Was Made For This" as the team mourns Black Widow. In addition, the opening of "I Was Made For This" is repurposed from "They Called It"; the motif first played when the Avengers mourned Phil Coulson, and returns when they mourn Black Widow. The ending of "I Got A Ride" is reprised in "Portals"; the track traditionally plays during a long take of the Avengers fighting. Parts of "Seeing, Not Believing" are reprised during the final battle in the track "Get This Thing Started". "The One", which plays when Iron Man takes the Infinity Stones, reprises the theme from "One Way Trip" when Iron Man releases the nuke in space. Another portion of "One Way Trip" is reused when Thanos's army disintegrates.
Silvestri reworked numerous tracks from Captain America: The First Avenger. The "Captain America Main Titles" are reprised in "Perfectly Not Confusing", when Tony returns Cap's shield. Parts of "Invasion" and "VitaRays" are reprised in "Tunnel Scape" and "I Can't Risk This". The ending of "Factory Inferno" plays when Cap grabs Mjolnir, and the first half of "Motorcycle Mayhem" plays when Cap wields Mjolnir against Thanos; both reprises are contained in the track "Worth It". Silvestri also reprised "This Is My Choice" when Cap passes on his shield and mantle to Sam Wilson. [88]
Spider-Man: Far From Home
In October 2018, Giacchino was confirmed to return to score Spider-Man: Far From Home . [89] As he did with Spider-Man: Homecoming, Giacchino reprises Silvestri's Avengers theme twice in the score. He also reprises the Homecoming Spider-Man theme, which has been modified to sound more heroic and represent his growth as a hero. [90] Giacchino also reprised his Iron Man theme during a conversation between Peter and Mysterio. This marks the second time that an Iron Man theme has been reprised in an MCU film – the first was in Avengers: Age of Ultron, when Brian Tyler reprised his Iron Man 3 theme. [91]
Giacchino wrote new themes for S.H.I.E.L.D. (which bears slight semblance to the Avengers theme), Mysterio, and the romance between Peter and MJ. Mysterio's theme bears semblance to the Doctor Strange theme, which Giacchino also wrote. The instrumentation of the theme is also similar. [92] The theme is reprised many times in the score in a heroic context, but eventually becomes more bombastic and malevolent after Mysterio's intentions unfold.
Phase Four
| Title | U.S. release date | Length | Composer(s) | Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black Widow (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) | July 9, 2021 | 1:19:53 | Lorne Balfe | Hollywood Records Marvel Music |
| Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (Original Score) | September 1, 2021 | 1:08:19 | Joel P. West | |
| Eternals (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) | November 3, 2021 | 1:08:17 | Ramin Djawadi | |
| Spider-Man: No Way Home (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) | December 17, 2021 | 1:13:54 | Michael Giacchino | Sony Classical Records |
| Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) | May 4, 2022 | 1:01:25 | Danny Elfman | Hollywood Records Marvel Music |
| Thor: Love and Thunder (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) | July 6, 2022 | 59:03 | Michael Giacchino and Nami Melumad | |
| Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Original Score) | November 11, 2022 | 1:23:00 | Ludwig Göransson |
Black Widow
By May 2020, Lorne Balfe was scoring Black Widow , replacing the original composer Alexandre Desplat. [93] [94] The film score was released on July 9, 2021.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
In June 2021, Joel P. West was revealed to be composing the score for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings . West has scored director Destin Daniel Cretton's previous films I Am Not a Hipster , Short Term 12 , The Glass Castle and Just Mercy . [95] The film score was released on September 1, 2021.
Eternals
Ramin Djawadi composed the score for Eternals , marking his second time scoring an MCU film, after Iron Man. [96] The film score was released on November 3, 2021.
Spider-Man: No Way Home
By November 2020, Spider-Man composer Michael Giacchino was set to return for No Way Home. [97] The film score was released on December 17, 2021. [98] The soundtrack also features music from previous Spider-Man soundtracks by other film composers including Hans Zimmer, James Horner and Danny Elfman, as well as Giacchino's theme for Doctor Strange.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
By October 2019, original Doctor Strange composer Michael Giacchino was set to return for Multiverse of Madness. [99] However, following the departure of original director, Scott Derrickson in January 2020, with Sam Raimi being brought on in April 2020, it was announced that Danny Elfman was brought on board to replace Giacchino as composer for the film by February 2021. [100]
Thor: Love and Thunder
In December 2021, Michael Giacchino revealed he would scoring Thor: Love and Thunder , replacing Mark Mothersbaugh from Ragnarok. [101] Giacchino ultimately composed the score with Nami Melumad, with themes by Giacchino. [102]
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
By September 2021, it was confirmed that original Black Panther composer Ludwig Göransson would return for Wakanda Forever. [103]
Phase Five
| Title | U.S. release date | Length | Composer(s) | Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) | February 15, 2023 | 1:00:14 | Christophe Beck | Hollywood Records Marvel Music |
| Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (Original Score) | May 3, 2023 | 1:03:02 | John Murphy | |
| The Marvels (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) | November 8, 2023 | 1:15:00 | Laura Karpman | |
| Deadpool & Wolverine (Original Score) | July 24, 2024 | 1:01:51 | Rob Simonsen |
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
By July 2022, it was confirmed that Ant-Man composer Christophe Beck would return for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania . [104]
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
In October 2021, John Murphy was revealed to be scoring the film, replacing Tyler Bates from previous Guardians films. [105] Murphy also composed the score to Gunn's film, The Suicide Squad .
The Marvels
By January 2022, Laura Karpman, the composer of What If...? and Ms. Marvel was set to compose the score to The Marvels. [106] John Ottman's scores from X2 and X-Men: Days of Future Past are used in the post-credits scene where Teyonah Parris's Monica Rambeau ends up with Kelsey Grammer's Hank McCoy. [107]
Deadpool & Wolverine
In July 2023, Rob Simonsen was revealed to be composing the score to Deadpool & Wolverine . [108] Simonsen previously scored Shawn Levy's film The Adam Project .
Phase Six
The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Michael Giacchino was announced in July 2024 to be composing the score for The Fantastic Four: First Steps . His music for the Fantastic Four and Galactus was previewed during a drone show at San Diego Comic-Con that month. [109]
Avengers: Doomsday
In July 2024, Alan Silvestri was confirmed to be returning as the composer for Avengers: Doomsday . [110]
Avengers: Secret Wars
In July 2024, Alan Silvestri was confirmed to be returning as the composer for Avengers: Secret Wars . [110]
