Hans Zimmer could return to the superhero genre if the movie was “amazing”

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

Though one of the most prolific film composers in history, Hans Zimmer’s most attributed work has come from the superhero movie realm in recent years– such as Christopher Nolan’s THE DARK KNIGHT trilogy and the recent slate of DCEU pictures.  It’s become such a big part of his life, which is why he decided to hang up his complementary cape, retiring from the genre forever. However, you should never say never in these cases, and even Zimmer has conditions in which he would return.

In a recent interview with Inverse about Zimmer’s MasterClass segment he talked about his retirement from the superhero genre, saying how Ron Howard gave him something to think about when it came to retiring for good:

Ron Howard actually said something very smart to me. He said, “Don’t say you will never do a superhero movie again, wait for somebody to turn up with an amazing script for a superhero movie.” And I suppose that’s what I’m saying: Can I please have the amazing script?

Zimmer repeated parts of statement when he announced his superhero retirement, saying how what may seem like three Nolan Batman movies for us is more than a decade of work for him. He did elaborate though, citing how transitioning from Christian Bale’s Batman to Ben Affleck’s was what took out a big chunk:

It just did my brain in to have written Christian Bale as Batman, and suddenly it’s Ben Affleck [in BVS]. And it felt like I was betraying everything Christian had done. So there’s a certain amount of loyalty attached to those movies, as well.

I spent months trying to come up with something for Ben. The Batman that I know and the one I learned is the one that Christian did, and Ben plays it differently. And I can’t quite shake that off. For me, the Christian Bale character was always completely unresolved. It was always about that moment at the beginning of the first movie, where he sees his parents getting killed. It was basically arrested development. The Ben character is more middle-aged, he seems to be grumpy as hell but I didn’t feel the pain that I felt in Christian’s performance. And it was that pain that made be interested.

Hans Zimmer’s last superhero flick was the divisive BATMAN V. SUPERMAN, where he split the duties between himself and composer Junkie XL, who will be composing for the upcoming JUSTICE LEAGUE movie. Meanwhile, Zimmer will be trading a cape for a rifle, and will return to Nolan’s side this year to score his upcoming war movie, DUNKIRK.

Given that Zimmer has had time to shake off the superhero genre and step away, it seems he is not totally opposed to doing another comic book movie, which to me isn’t the smartest option. I love what Zimmer did with, say, THE DARK KNIGHT, but I think he was right in thinking maybe he’s tapped out. I think that musically he’s expressed everything he can in the genre, and it would only make sense to return if it was for something totally different, like LOGAN. Zimmer is a composer with tremendous versatility, so stepping away from the genre was a great first step in reminding people of that. Plus, how many more "dun, dun, dun, DUUUNs" does he have in him?

Be sure to listen for Zimmer's work in DUNKIRK on July 21.