Danny Elfman will use his own Batman theme for Justice League

November 2nd 2017, 1:57pm

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

So Danny Elfman is writing the score for JUSTICE LEAGUE, and he is definitely no slouch when it comes to the superhero genre. Not only did he do the scores for AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON and SPIDER-MAN, but also the iconic score for Tim Burton's 1989 BATMAN. And like Hans Zimmer, he faces a similar dilemma: writing Batman for two different universes. Zimmer decided to not step on the toes of his work with the character on the Christopher Nolan films, and instead had his collaborator Junkie XL take on the duty of writing Batman's new themes, while Zimmer worked on Superman's stuff. However, Elfman seems to have a different approach in mind.

Here's what he had to say during an interview with Reporte Indigo:

No, you will not hear a new theme for Batman. You will hear Batman's theme for Batman…Now, Hans has done some wonderful, very driving, rhythmic stuff, but there's only ever been one theme, and it's Batman's theme.

This seems pretty clear that he'll be going back to the original theme he wrote back for the first film in 1989. This isn't unprecedented, as he already admitted that he'd be using at least some snippets of the classic John William's Superman score for when Superman returns in the film (which can't count as a spoiler if he's already in 75% of the promotional material, and the whole "digitally removing Cavill's pornstache" story was all the rage a few weeks back).

Now, I'm of two minds on this. On the one hand, that theme is boss, and I think it's one of the best themes ever. But, on the other, I'm honestly one of those people that likes keeping the universes separate. I honestly liked the music in BATMAN V SUPERMAN (one of its few bright spots), and think there's a reason changes are made. But, we'll see when it comes out how it all comes together before we judge too harshly one way or another.