Michael Giacchino is one of Marvel’s go-to composers, having scored the three Sony-Marvel Spider-Man movies, the original Doctor Strange, and even directing the Disney Plus special Werewolf By Night. So it’s no surprise that Marel would turn to the renowned composer for the upcoming Fantastic Four: First Steps. But it might be an even more perfect match than any prior project.
Giacchino was on hand at the 2024 D23 Expo to debut, not footage, but sound from the major 2025 release. Filming just began on the tentpole, which stars Pedro Pascal (Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic), Vanessa Kirby (Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman), Joseph Quinn (Johnny Storm/The Human Torch), and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Ben Grimm/The Thing), but with a load of test footage in the can (shown earlier at the 2024 San Diego Comic-Con) the composer clearly has done his prep work for when the movie is ready to fully load up with music. You can hear the lengthy original theme below:
Michael Giacchino’s full score for ‘THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS’ has arrived! 4️⃣ pic.twitter.com/iY4VwDvSuI
The pairing of composer and material makes perfect sense. On top of his Marvel work, Giacchino has a number of cues that click right with Marvel’s retrofuture approach to the alternate 1960s-set Fantastic Four. While the composer can certainly go dark and brooding for The Batman or break our hearts in just five minutes like he did in Up, his Fantastic Four score is reminiscent of two movies he did with director Brad Bird’s: the animated superhero movie The Incredibles (probably the best Fantastic Four adaptation made so far?) and the retrofuture reality-jumping adventure movie Tomorrowland, which absolutely no one remembers. But the score was great!
The Fantastic Four: First Steps score is idealistic and bright, but knowing that Galactus is out there, we expect Giacchino to take the musical palette to more frightening cosmic places. He’s done that too. Time to give “Roar!” the sole piece of music from Cloverfield, a
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