The Danny Elfman Batman Score Works Perfectly in the ‘Justice League’ Trailer
The announcement that Danny Elfman will replace Junkie XL as the composer of Justice League is one of the first concrete signs of the shift in direction for the film following the departure of Zack Snyder and his replacement by Joss Whedon. Frankly, we were excited by the news. Elfman’s a great composer, with plenty of experience writing music for superhero movies; he composed the music for Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man, Ang Lee’s Hulk, and Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy II: The Golden Army.
Of course, his best-known superhero theme appeared in 1989’s Batman. It remains one of the very best pieces of music in the history of comic-book movies. And that got us wondering: What would the trailer for Justice League look like with Elfman’s Batman music laid on top of it? After all, Justice League has Batman in it; albeit Ben Affleck’s Martha-focused Dark Knight instead of Michael Keaton’s you-wanna-get-nuts-let’s-get-nuts Bruce Wayne. Things haven’t changed too much in the 25 years since Elfman helped Tim Burton capture the sound of Gotham City and its Caped Crusader. With that in mind, we blended the various Justice League trailers together, laid Elfman’s signature score on top and found ... that they actually work really well together.
The big audio flourish with the Aquaman splash and Jason Momoa’s stare, the slow build over Gal Gadot’s “The others, where are they?” It’s a nice fit. Elfman’s score for Justice League will be its own thing, but we really hope he finds at least one spot to lay in this classic Batman theme over a shot or sequence of Affleck. And if it happens, we might freak out in the theater a little bit. Justice League opens on November 17.