‘I'm going to composer hell for this': ‘Superman' composers on adapting John Williams' ‘sacred' anthem for their super-score

Yahoo

24-07-2025

In the annals of hallowed movie scores, John Williams boasts the Holy Trinity of Jaws, Star Wars, and Superman. (If you want to round upwards, throw in Raiders of the Lost Ark and Jurassic Park, as well.) And woe be unto any composer that strives outdo those immortal soundtracks — particularly if they try to put their own stamp on one of the reigning gods of movie music.
That's a risk that John Murphy and David Fleming were both well aware of when James Gunn persuaded them to collaborate on the score for his relaunch of the Man of Steel's feature film franchise. Past Superman revivals have handled the challenge in different ways. John Ottman's score for 2006's Superman Returns didn't mess with success, preserving the Williams title anthem with little to no changes. But Hans Zimmer left the "Superman March" out of his score for 2013's Man of Steel — one of many controversial departures that movie made from the template established the Christopher Reeve films.
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Gunn's Superman is also very much its own comic book confection, but as both Murphy and Fleming tell Gold Derby in separate interviews, the director never intended to fully march to the beat of his own drummer. "James said to me early on that he wanted to pay homage to Williams and bring the 'Superman March' back in," Murphy says. "We knew we wanted to hear it. At least in my generation, we grew up hearing that amazing motif the first time we saw Superman fly in the first movie."
"James' movie is obviously influenced by the Superman comics, but he was also touched by Richard Donner's film and loves that Williams score, as do I," echoes Fleming. "It's a gem of our craft." (The original Superman's score was nominated for an Oscar, but didn't join Jaws and Star Wars in bringing home a statuette for Williams.)
Murphy was the first of the duo to join Gunn's justice league, having previously collaborated with the director on The Suicide Squad and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. "James told me to just try stuff," he remembers about his early marching orders in how to adapt the Williams theme. "So I did it in a lot of different ways: I did a big Gothic version and a version that changed it from a major key to a minor key."
"Then I started getting really crazy with it," he continues with a laugh. "I slowed it down to half-speed and it still sounded great. I also added an acoustic guitar and did a Radiohead-style version, which you actually hear in the movie at the end. There was a synth version and even a punk version at one point. After that one, I was like, 'I'm going to composer hell for this!'"
Murphy eventually hit the right note — almost by accident. While noodling around on an electric guitar during one recording session, he started strumming the "Superman March" in the style of Jimi Hendrix's classic sunrise-at-Woodstock take on "The Star-Spangled Banner." "It made me smile," he remembers. "Even played on a dirty guitar through a Vox AC15 amp, it's still that bloody theme! I just did it to entertain myself, but then I started thinking: 'I couldn't ... or could I?'"
When Gunn heard Murphy's rendition, he decided that the composer absolutely could. In fact, the director was so high on the Hendrix-tinged take that he put it in the movie's first teaser trailer without telling his composer. "I though they'd use one of the big orchestral versions I did," Murphy says. "But then he put the trailer on for me, and the guitar came in. I was like, 'This is going to be the first sound that the world will hear of the new Superman.'"
It was also the first sound that Fleming heard when he was brought aboard. "John had already cracked a lot of the most difficult challenges on the score," the composer says. "So I got to come in and further explore the Superman music and the DNA of that iconic theme." With Murphy having used what Fleming calls "the chorus" of the "Superman March," Fleming focused his attention on the track's "opening call," finding ways to incorporate it into the movie's big action beats.
"I used that as an action motif," he explains, adding that he broke out other sections of Williams's theme to drive separate narrative throughlines — like the scenes where Clark struggles with the knowledge that his Kryptonian parents may have sent to Earth to do more nefarious things than help people. "I used the end cadence from the 'Superman March' for those moments," Fleming notes. "That part of the theme always touched me. I remember playing a slow version of it on the piano for James and I could feel him really responding to it. It not only fit his version of Superman, but also his version of Clark."
Far from being condemned to hell for daring to mess around with an iconic John Williams anthem, Murphy and Fleming's score has been met with a largely positive response from fans. The one person they haven't heard from is Williams — and they're just fine with that. "I try not to think about," Murphy laughs when asked about the chances that the legendary composer, who turned 93 earlier this year, may have heard his noodling.
"Composers don't get any bigger than John Williams, let's be honest," he adds. "So I hope he likes it! His Superman score is a holy grail — it's sacred."
But there's more — much more — to this new Superman score than just the "Superman March." We had the duo walk us through some of the most notable tracks on the album, from themes for Lex Luthor and the dynamic duo that is Lois and Clark to that endlessly replayable Mighty Crabjoys tunes.
"LuthorCorp"
Unlike the more classical Superman sound, Murphy wanted Nicholas Hoult's tech bro interpretation of the Man of Steel's nemesis, Lex Luthor, to sound more present day. "The way James has drawn this version of the character, he could be Elon Musk or a lot of other people like that," the composer says. "We wanted to keep the antagonists modern so we introduced a lot of synth guitars in the sound design. And that helped for when the two characters collide, because it's easier to differentiate sonically between Superman and Lex."
Murphy also has an affinity for that particular track because it allowed him to team up with his daughter, Molly. "She did all the cool trip-up stuff that's in there and all the synths and pulses," the proud father says. "I'm so lucky that I get to write music with my daughter. She makes my stuff cooler!"
"Justice Gang vs. Kaiju"
While Murphy focused on Luthor's villainy, Fleming took point on scoring the movie's earlier action sequences, including Superman and Maxwell Lord's Justice Gang going toe-to-oversized toe with a gaint kaiju creature as Lex invades the Fortress of Solitude. "That fight is one of your first opportunities to see Superman in battle," he says. "It's also the most purely fun action sequence in the film. That's the first moment where I used the opening call of the 'Superman March' as an action motif. You get to really enjoy seeing Superman use his powers — he's in danger, but also in control at the same time."
"Lois & Clark"
Can you read our minds? Murphy came up with two versions of a tone-setting theme for the movie's red hot couple. The first was big and orchestral — not unlike Williams's lushly romantic take. The second, on the other hand, featured nearly eight minutes of filtered guitars for a stripped-down modern sound. Murphy sent both versions off to Gunn, assuming that he'd pick the grander one. But the director immediately wrapped his arms around the quieter version, much to Murphy's initial chagrin.
"I was disappointed," he admits. "But then I realized that it makes total sense: Lois and Clark have a very grounded relationship, so they don't need to have this big romantic theme playing. If you watch their first scene together, she's being snarky and he's being a bit of a dick! So of course it would be the simple little guitar version rather than this big, blown-up thing."
"Metropolis"
While Murphy and Fleming oversaw individual tracks, they also joined forces for the movie's most complicated sequences where multiple musical themes and motifs were at play. Fleming likens those collaborations to a jigsaw puzzle where they each ensured that all the pieces were placed correctly within the overall soundscape. "Metropolis" is part of the movie's grand climax and Fleming describes it as "the closest thing to a pure collaboration that John and I got to have."
"That actually started as a John Murphy guitar piece with these two chords that were going back and forth," he recalls. "Then the scene keeps going, so I took his piece and ran with it, adding orchestra to make it a little grander. He set the bar for that track and then I hopefully took it somewhere else."
"The Mighty Crabjoys"
For the record, Murphy and Fleming aren't an official part of the Mighty Crabjoys — the punk-pop band that's become a running joke in the new DC cinematic universe. Instead, the fictional group's hit single was written as a group effort by Gunn, Foxy Shazam's Eric Nally, and musician Devin Williams and performed by Foxy Shazam and Lou Lou Safran. But Fleming says that he did add some choir to the track in the final stages of production. "My only question was, 'Do we want this to be a classical choir or do we want to make it punk rock?' And James said, 'It would be funnier if it sounds like a big classical choir.' The choir ended up doing it gospel-style and it gives the movie its own specific energy."
Even if their own score isn't nominated at the Oscars next year, both composers would love to see the Mighty Crabjoys appear at the ceremony as Original Song performers... and nominees. "If we could get the Mighty Crabjoys onstage at the Oscars, that would be hilarious," Fleming says with a smile. "It would be the coolest thing if Superman could be the lead singer," Murphy adds in agreement. "Batman would be cool, too."
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