Marvel has worked with a lot of great composers like Alan Silvestri, Michael Giacchino, Henry Jackman, John Paesano, Patrick Doyle, Tyler Bates, Brian Tyler, Ludwig Göransson, and Natalie Holt, among others. But what about great composers who have yet to debut in MCU? And what films/series could they compose for? Below are my top picks for composers that I believe would fit perfectly at Marvel Studios.
MCU future composer picks: Steve Jablonsky
Best known for his fantastic and highly atmospheric soundtrack to Michael Bay’s Transformers series, Steve Jablonsky would be a terrific addition to the MCU composer family. His specialty is mainly piano, keyboards, guitar, and percussion, but that certainly wouldn’t be an impediment to creating diverse soundtracks with plenty of soul and emotion.
In the past, he has collaborated with Linkin Park and Imagine Dragons on music for the Transformers franchise, and has also worked with Hans Zimmer. Thanks to his experience, Jablonsky can easily fit in with the other MCU composers, creating themes that are sure to stay in the audience’s minds for a long time.
Jablonsky’s music would fit in well in projects such as Midnight Sons, Armor Wars, or even Ghost Rider. With his ability to create emotional and sad music that perfectly transforms into action and thrill-packed themes, he would be a great addition to the family of MCU composers.
In his career, besides the Transformers series, Jablonsky composed music for The Amityville Horror, Friday the 13th (2009), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, Bloodshot, and DC League of Super-Pets. Adding Steve Jablonsky to the MCU could certainly be a wonderful addition to the great composers already working with the studio.
You can check the music of Steve Jablonsky on Youtube and Spotify.
MCU future composer picks: Alexandre Desplat
Alexandre Desplat is a French film composer and conductor who has won many awards (including two Oscars, three Cesars, three BAFTAs, two Golden Globes, and two Grammy Awards). He’s a very talented composer specializing in trumpet, flute, and piano.
Desplat’s best-known soundtracks are Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and 2, The Golden Compass, Rise of the Guardians, Godzilla, and The French Dispatch. He has composed music for French cinema, and Hollywood in more than 100 productions.
Desplat would be a great choice for upcoming productions such as Avengers: Kang Dynasty, Fantastic Four, Thunderbolts, Vision Quest, the next Spider-Man trilogy, or even Blade. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1 & 2, he created classical music, showing the audience how serious or intense certain scenes are.
Alexandre Desplat is definitely one of the composers who should join the Marvel Cinematic Universe not only to give some scenes extra atmosphere but to give more to the production for which the soundtrack is created.
You can check the music of Alexander Desplat on Youtube and Spotify.
MCU future composer picks: Murray Gold
Murray Gold is an English composer any fan of Doctor Who will surely recognize, seeing he composed the theme for the reboot back in 2005. He’s set to return alongside Russell T. Davies to continue his work and provide a lot more Doctor Who vibes with his compositions. Murray Gold has also worked on music for Doctor Who spin-offs such as The Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood.
Projects in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for which Murray Gold would be ideal are Silver Surfer, Nova, Shang-Chi 2, Wonder Man, and Doctor Strange 3. His musical specialties include piano, bass, and more, so he can create any musical theme you can think of.
Murray Gold is able to find his way to show us in his music both cosmic, strange, funny, sad, and spectacular vibes bringing us to tears and making us happy at the same time. This ability to balance emotions that are opposites of themselves is something that a composer like Murray Gold has mastered to the point where we won’t even argue with his choice for any project if he is attached to it in some way.
You can check the music of Murray Gold on Youtube and Spotify.
MCU future composer picks: Justin Hurwitz
Having worked with famous director Damien Chazelle for years, Justin Hurwitz has made a good name for himself and is highly praised when it comes to the titles he composes. Hurwitz is a two-time Academy Award winner in the Best Original Score and Best Original Song categories. He composed for the highly acclaimed films Whiplash, La La Land, First Man, and Babylon. His musical technique is inspired by EDM, rock and roll, modern dance music, and jazz, with a few additional genres.
I’d love to see Hurwitz composing the soundtrack for Captain America: New World Order, Ryan Coogler’s Okoye project, or Ironheart. I think that whatever project was given to him, he would execute it perfectly to the smallest detail, adding his own style while retaining everything that his predecessors had composed for some of these projects.
Hurwitz can easily create a soundtrack both full of energy and full of solemnity. For example, which is needed to realize the vision of projects such as New World Order. Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) has become a much more central and important symbol with his new moniker, and it will be Hurwitz’s job to create music that is appropriate and brings more weight to his serious scenes, as well as for the cultural/personal aspects of the film.
You can check the music of Justin Hurwitz on Youtube and Spotify.
MCU future composer picks: Benjamin Wallfisch
Benjamin Wallfisch has worked on more than 75 feature films and created original soundtracks for them, such as Lights Out, A Cure for Wellness, It, Blade Runner 2049, Shazam!, Hellboy, It Chapter Two, The Invisible Man, and Mortal Kombat. He’s won awards from the FFCCA, HMMA twice, IFMCA, and the Washington DC AFCA for his work. Wallfisch specializes in guitar, drums, piano, keyboards, synthesizers, and more.
Marvel projects where he could excel as a composer are Agatha: Coven of Chaos, Deadpool 3, a spin-off about Wong (Benedict Wong), or another Werewolf by Night style special presentation. Wallfisch can compose music that is aggressive, fast, and loud, as well as frightening, calm, and slow. In this way, he could create a creepy and strange soundtrack for all sorts of productions that would lend itself well to some crazy and perhaps unexpected scenes for some of these types of projects.
You can check the music of Benjamin Wallfisch on Youtube and Spotify.
Bonus pick: Daft Punk
I must admit that I didn’t expect to include one of my favorite musical duos on this list. I know what you might be thinking “Why did you put Daft Punk as the composers you want for a Marvel project? After all, they consider it a duo/band.” True, but they have one film in their history for which they composed the entire original soundtrack, Tron: Legacy. For that film, they won Best Original Score from the Austin Film Critics Association and Best Original Score from the International Film Music Critics Association.
Although Daft Punk is now retired, we know that music stars and bands come out of retirement often. Daft Punk specialized in French house, electronic, dance, and disco music, but also had fun mixing styles and creating genre hybrids. They have been one of the most creative and beloved musical duos since they started composing music in 1993.
Daft Punk calling off their retirement with the big announcement “We are coming back and will compose music for one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe productions.” would certainly draw a lot of excitement. I know this choice is highly unlikely, but I’d love to hear the duo compose music for projects like Ironheart, or a Spider-Man 2099 project, or some projects set in the future or another universe. They have shown us that they are more than capable of making music that is meant to help us understand any situation that is happening or the emotions we need to feel, simply by creating a great song.
You can check the music of Daft Punk on Youtube and Spotify.
What do you think about those picks? Do you agree with them? What composer would you like to see next in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and in which project? Let us know on Twitter and our Discord channel. And if you haven’t already, check out Anthony Flagg’s picks for favorite uses of music in the MCU.
My Favorite Uses of Music in Marvel
