Superman(2025) - John Murphy

[CT-7567 170]

As it’s a really important movie, and that maybe will have the use of the John Williams theme, thought that it would be a good thing to make a topic for it.

 

First motion poster:

The theme, in John Murphy “Topic”:

Synopsis:

[Pieter Boelen 1,019]

But...

But...

The synopsis DOESN'T sound like doom and gloom. 

How can that be? 

Must we not have our dreaded Modern Movie Syndrome???

 

And that piece of music...

It sounded to me like it was skirting the Williams themes. 

 

Could they actually be having the RIGHT ideas again??

Surely not!!

[Meredith McKay 7,858]

3 minutes ago, Pieter Boelen said:

But...

But...

 

 

Could they actually be having the RIGHT ideas again??

Surely not!!

Using an older legacy theme instead of being original and coming up with their own great one is "the right idea"? (To be clear, I actually like that they are using Williams' theme)

[HunterTech 1,505]

Yeah, but what would make more of an impression: Murphy having a new theme that lands like a thud, or using the JW theme in ways that'll be guaranteed to make some cringe?

[Meredith McKay 7,858]

Just now, HunterTech said:

Yeah, but what would make more of an impression: Murphy having a new theme that lands like a thud,

Notice I said "great one" not "a thud"

[Jurassic Shark 14,970]

One word: kazoos. 

[Pieter Boelen 1,019]

4 minutes ago, Doo_liss said:

Using an older legacy theme instead of being original and coming up with their own great one is "the right idea"? (To be clear, I actually like that they are using Williams' theme)

I mean to have the tone NOT dark and dreary, yes; that IS the right idea.

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,854]

Looks like CW garbage

[Davis 3,949]

6 minutes ago, HunterTech said:

Yeah, but what would make more of an impression: Murphy having a new theme that lands like a thud, or using the JW theme in ways that'll be guaranteed to make some cringe?

Since most people didn’t recognize JW’s theme in the teaser, I guess Gunn should either have used JW’s original theme or HZ’s “theme” or Murphy’s new theme (if he wrote one). 

[Meredith McKay 7,858]

22 minutes ago, Davis said:

Since most people didn’t recognize JW’s theme in the teaser.

And you know that for a fact do you?

[CT-7567 170]

42 minutes ago, Davis said:

Since most people didn’t recognize JW’s theme in the teaser, I guess Gunn should either have used JW’s original theme or HZ’s “theme” or Murphy’s new theme (if he wrote one). 

Literally one of the most liked comments from the video is talking about how it is a “perfect blend of John Williams’s Superman theme and Hans Zimmer Superman theme”.

 

That said, Murphy not writing one new theme in the movie after Gunn saying he wrote the score for over a year would be super laughable, I will give you that.

 

Also, Gunn said that it will be “A Glorious Symphony”, so we can maybe expect him to do a “Theme from X character” approach.

44 minutes ago, The Train Station said:

Looks like CW garbage

More like Rocketeer to me 

[Gabriel Bezerra 631]

Hum, I could see Horner's theme from the Rocketeer working for a Superman.

 

As for Williams theme being used, it might just be as an in-universe or as another idea in the movie and another one by Murphy for this Superman.

 

Smallville started using Williams, had his own for the last few seasons but ended with Williams again. And when Supes cameos in other movies (animated, mostly) it's Williams. So there's precedent.

[Luke Skywalker 2,182]

It should have always been Williams for superman.

[Romão 2,424]

I was always very fond of this theme as well:

 

 

And I must say I quite respect Zimmer's approach to his Superman theme. He took on a very different template than Williams and wrote something still very fitting and uplifting. I think it's easily his most successful super hero theme 

[Meredith McKay 7,858]

28 minutes ago, Gabriel Bezerra said:

Hum, I could see Horner's theme from the Rocketeer working for a Superman.

 

As for Williams theme being used, it might just be as an in-universe or as another idea in the movie and another one by Murphy for this Superman.

 

Smallville started using Williams, had his own for the last few seasons but ended with Williams again. And when Supes cameos in other movies (animated, mostly) it's Williams. So there's precedent.

Yeah, SV used some Williams in SE2, then stopped after that until they then used the original recording of the main title for the finale.

[CT-7567 170]

1 hour ago, Gabriel Bezerra said:

Hum, I could see Horner's theme from the Rocketeer working for a Superman.

Thanks for being my opportunity to say this: The Rocketeer main theme works better for Superman as a whole than for the Rocketeer as a whole.
 

It works with the movie mainly because Jenny is in it, and she’s the reason why the romantic feel of the score works, if they used his love interest from the comics, Betty, in the movie, the main theme would simply fell apart because of the tone changing, I’m not even joking.
 

The main theme has a romantic, but also innocent, pure feel, that isn’t really in the original Rocketeer comics.

Now, for a normal Superman story? It would be Perfect, check this  

 

[Director of Poltergeist 8,091]

Two perfect scores perfectly suited for their perfect films, Superman: The Movie and The Rocketeer. 

[LB Makes Stuff 337]

Sorry y'all, I get bored too easily

[Tallguy 5,652]

25 minutes ago, CT-7567 said:

Now, for a normal Superman story? It would be Perfect, see this

I LOVED that show.

[HunterTech 1,505]

2 hours ago, Doo_liss said:

Notice I said "great one" not "a thud"

 

Which isn't exactly a guarantee, given that he has to follow up both JW and HZ for the masses, let alone those who weren't fond of the latter's work to begin with. Especially when even Murphy's fans will admit he mainly succeeds in one lane, so he really needed to have spent his year working on the score making sure that he can prove the skeptics wrong.

 

2 hours ago, CT-7567 said:

Literally one of the most liked comments from the video is talking about how it is a “perfect blend of John Williams’s Superman theme and Hans Zimmer Superman theme”.

 

That said, Murphy not writing one new theme in the movie after Gunn saying he wrote the score for over a year would be super laughable, I will give you that.

 

Also, Gunn said that it will be “A Glorious Symphony”, so we can maybe expect him to do a “Theme from X character” approach.

More like Rocketeer to me 

 

Looking at it now, I was reminded of this:

 

 

https://images.fanart.tv/fanart/superman-56b05bfce672d.jpg

 

[Edmilson 10,471]

3 hours ago, HunterTech said:

Yeah, but what would make more of an impression: Murphy having a new theme that lands like a thud, or using the JW theme in ways that'll be guaranteed to make some cringe?

If I recall correctly, the first teaser to Man of Steel used Zimmer's music for that film.

 

Btw, anyone else thinks MoS is an underrated movie? It may not be perfect but still a decent movie with cool action scenes (the Smallville battle being my favorite). 

 

Out of all of Zack Snyder's DCEU movies, the only one I'm not a fan of is BvS but even that is starting to grow on me - I certainly like it much better now. One of these days I might go on a "Zackaton", with Man of Steel, BvS extended and Zack Snyder's Justice League.

[CT-7567 170]

39 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

If I recall correctly, the first teaser to Man of Steel used Zimmer's music for that film.

 

Btw, anyone else thinks MoS is an underrated movie? It may not be perfect but still a decent movie with cool action scenes (the Smallville battle being my favorite). 

 

Out of all of Zack Snyder's DCEU movies, the only one I'm not a fan of is BvS but even that is starting to grow on me - I certainly like it much better now. One of these days I might go on a "Zackaton", with Man of Steel, BvS extended and Zack Snyder's Justice League.

Yeah, sorry but In this I will need to disagree. The movie for me is in the spot it should be “the one movie from Snyder most people agree that is good but that isn’t really that good”.

 

Which yeah is my opinion, it has good things(the great Guilherme Briggs, the score, the action scenes, the villain), but also a lot of bad things(the thematic inconsistency, the Codex being really confusing, some plot holes, it having pacing problems, the portrayal of Superman”), decent but not anything higher.

 

That said I can’t like BVS, never watched the Snydercut(more because it’s seems to be the same movie of 2017 but with 4 hours).

 

1 hour ago, Tallguy said:

I LOVED that show.

I really liked it too, it got the core of the characters right even with the changes that were made, and this right here? GLORIOUS

 

1 hour ago, HunterTech said:

Looking at it now, I was reminded of this:

 

 

https://images.fanart.tv/fanart/superman-56b05bfce672d.jpg

 

For some reason I can’t stop thinking about Reeve’s face being funny here, I don’t know, it looks like he’s bummed after trying to rearrange his hair to turn into Clark Kent mode that he can’t change that tiny bit of hair now lol

[artguy360 2,013]

I love this new interpretation of Williams' classic Superman theme. I hope the theme will feature throughout the score itself and not just as nostalgia bait for the trailer.

[Matt C 538]

The poster is fantastic. I’m getting used to the original DC logo but it looks good with the studios wording next to it.

 

I am curious if Murphy will do a similar job like he did on GOTG V3– quote Williams’ themes in select places but new material otherwise. It would be cool if he wrote a Williams style score but I don’t think Murphy has it in him.

[Meredith McKay 7,858]

1 hour ago, Edmilson said:

If I recall correctly, the first teaser to Man of Steel used Zimmer's music for that film.

 

 

Pretty sure it (or at least one of them) used The Bridge of Khazad-Dum.

 

So music that is actually good

[LB Makes Stuff 337]

31 minutes ago, Matt C said:

I am curious if Murphy will do a similar job like he did on GOTG V3– quote Williams’ themes in select places but new material otherwise. It would be cool if he wrote a Williams style score but I don’t think Murphy has it in him.

I don't think the purpose of this is to do a Williams style score, I think it’s more to reflect who Superman is in this new DC Universe.

 

From what I can tell, this Superman is “of a different era” compared to the new heroes that surround him; so, I'm thinking that Gunn wants the Williams theme to be his Superman’s theme to reflect how different in comparison he is to everyone else.

 

That’s just my guess though.

[CT-7567 170]

1 hour ago, Matt C said:

The poster is fantastic. I’m getting used to the original DC logo but it looks good with the studios wording next to it.

 

I am curious if Murphy will do a similar job like he did on GOTG V3– quote Williams’ themes in select places but new material otherwise. It would be cool if he wrote a Williams style score but I don’t think Murphy has it in him.

You mean like how the start of this is like Black Tears?

 

 

1 hour ago, LB Makes Stuff said:

I don't think the purpose of this is to do a Williams style score, I think it’s more to reflect who Superman is in this new DC Universe.

 

From what I can tell, this Superman is “of a different era” compared to the new heroes that surround him; so, I'm thinking that Gunn wants the Williams theme to be his Superman’s theme to reflect how different in comparison he is to everyone else.

 

That’s just my guess though.

You know, thinking about how Gunn likes Tokusatsu, and the group of heroes with the Maxwell Lord logo are like a Sentai team…

 

Non ironically the theme for them can be jazzy/funky like a Super Sentai theme and I’m not even joking, Gunn is over the top enough to do it and kinda adds to the retro futuristic aesthetic, plus Murphy actually did something a bit like that before

 

Also about the different era thing, the point Gunn is going to make maybe is that Superman behaves more like a superhero from the “Golden Age”, which would be in this universe the time when the JSA appeared

[Once 903]

4 hours ago, Edmilson said:

If I recall correctly, the first teaser to Man of Steel used Zimmer's music for that film.

Didn't it use Shore's Fellowship of the Ring? Unless you mean a different teaser!

 

 

[Naïve Old Fart 11,624]

10 hours ago, The Train Station said:

Looks like CW garbage

"CW"?

Country and Western?

[bollemanneke 4,007]

Yay, more superhero movies! What an original idea! I mean it's not like we've got... dozens of those already...

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,854]

48 minutes ago, bollemanneke said:

Yay, more superhero movies! What an original idea! I mean it's not like we've got... dozens of those already...

 

I was fart-arsing around on Disney+ last night, browsing the Marvel section, as I've missed so much MCU stuff since 2020, but I was frustrated to find that I wasn't interested in watching any of it. Either I outgrew this franchise in a similar way to how I outgrew Harry Potter and LOTR, or the MCU films and shows made in the 2020s simply became lamer and lost whatever magic sauce they had in the 2010s.

[bollemanneke 4,007]

It's not you, it's just too much. You can only have so much of the same before it eventually gets tiring.

[Davis 3,949]

11 hours ago, Doo_liss said:

And you know that for a fact do you?

99% didn’t imo.

 

 

9 hours ago, LB Makes Stuff said:

Sorry y'all, I get bored too easily

Nice! But you missed “Original Superman Themes by John Williams”.
 

 

7 hours ago, artguy360 said:

I hope the theme will feature throughout the score itself and not just as nostalgia bait for the trailer.

We wish. But I think Gunn was like “Let’s bait Reeve-Superman fans with the Williams theme and Cavill-Superman fans with the Zimmer theme, we’ll do our own thing in the film.”
 

Never underestimate studio heads. They are evil.

[Jurassic Shark 14,970]

12 minutes ago, The Train Station said:

I was frustrated to find that I wasn't interested in watching any of it.

 

That's nothing to be frustrated about. I just means you possibly have taste.

[Davis 3,949]

10 hours ago, Romão said:

I was always very fond of this theme as well:

 

 

And I must say I quite respect Zimmer's approach to his Superman theme. He took on a very different template than Williams and wrote something still very fitting and uplifting. I think it's easily his most successful super hero theme 

Yes, Walker’s theme is great. So is Jay Gruska’s who as we know, is related to JW. 
 

I would say that Zimmer’s best superhero theme is WW1984. It’s a golden age superhero sound. 
 

 

18 minutes ago, The Train Station said:

I wasn't interested in watching any of it.

Me, neither.

[tomsmoviemadness 4,249]

6 minutes ago, Davis said:

I would say that Zimmer’s best superhero theme is WW1984. It’s a golden age superhero sound. 
 

 

 

I agree. Fantastic score. One of the best in the genre and of his career.

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,854]

14 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

That's nothing to be frustrated about. I just means you possibly have taste.

 

Tbh I was looking for something to at least fill some dead air, but the 2020s MCU had nothing for me.

[CT-7567 170]

42 minutes ago, bollemanneke said:

It's not you, it's just too much. You can only have so much of the same before it eventually gets tiring.

That’s why the DCU isn’t going to be like the MCU. Marvel used the same tone and formula for most of the movies, and made their directors not try to be different for years, it literally only changed a bit after Gunn made Guardians, and then there was some creative liberty…

 

To the directors try to copy Gunn’s style. 

Instead of something like that, Gunn in the DCU is going to: Let the directors be unique, have the movies be inspired by comics or even adapted directly, make movies with totally different genres, tones, settings and styles that will set them apart from each other, and most important, as Gunn said: “It won't be exactly like Marvel because nothing is greenlit before we have a finished script. We're not about that. We're not about 'see how it does'.”

[LB Makes Stuff 337]

1 hour ago, Davis said:

Nice! But you missed “Original Superman Themes by John Williams”.

So I’ve been told 😂

 

I’ve got the PSD file on my computer, I’ll tack that on when I’m not busy.

[Naïve Old Fart 11,624]

12 hours ago, CT-7567 said:

 

It's not bad, but it ain't Bob Peak, I can tell you that.

[Edmilson 10,471]

22 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

It's not bad, but it ain't Bob Peak, I can tell you that.

Bob's art was peak 

 

[Meredith McKay 7,858]

Bob Peak at his peak, was peak.

[Davis 3,949]

4 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

It's not bad, but it ain't Bob Peak, I can tell you that.

Nor Drew Struzan. 

[DangerMotif 1,277]

The movie is score-driven, not song-driven (plus John Williams)

Gunn’s regular composer, John Murphy, is doing the score for Superman and Gunn confirmed that the film will be much more orchestral-driven than his Guardians of the Galaxy movies. But when you think of Superman and music, you only think of one person and yes, he’s in there.

“There’s nods to [John] Williams and then also John Murphy’s created this incredibly beautiful score,” Gunn said. “But the one thing is it is a score, it’s not a soundtrack. So it’s not about the songs. There’s a few songs in it. And of course, I chose those songs beforehand, but it isn’t like any of my previous movies really in terms of the score is what drives it. It’s a much, much more of a score film.”

[Davis 3,949]

Only Superman could read this.

[Cindylover1969 80]

The movie is score-driven, not song-driven (plus John Williams)

Gunn’s regular composer, John Murphy, is doing the score for Superman and Gunn confirmed that the film will be much more orchestral-driven than his Guardians of the Galaxy movies. But when you think of Superman and music, you only think of one person and yes, he’s in there.

“There’s nods to [John] Williams and then also John Murphy’s created this incredibly beautiful score,” Gunn said. “But the one thing is it is a score, it’s not a soundtrack. So it’s not about the songs. There’s a few songs in it. And of course, I chose those songs beforehand, but it isn’t like any of my previous movies really in terms of the score is what drives it. It’s a much, much more of a score film.”

[Davis 3,949]

1 minute ago, Cindylover1969 said:

“There’s nods to [John] Williams and then also John Murphy’s created this incredibly beautiful score"

So it's the love child of Superman Returns and Man of Steel? 

[bruce marshall 1,487]

BATMAN gets a new theme from

new composers ....

[Leia Sees Ghosts 326]

Think this is a good move. If a filmmaker/composer want to use the John Williams theme, they should. I don't think anyone is obligated to use it.

Love John Williams' score for Richard Donner's OG film and love Hans Zimmer's score for Man of Steel. Don't think Zimmer needed to use the theme. But happy to hear John Murphy is in addition to new themes. 

As long as a I get a new love theme for Clark & Lois.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,914]

John Ottman used Williams' themes in a film and score thata now forgotten.

 

Zimmer had the right idea.