If you’ve seen Zack Snyder’s Justice League, you know everything about it is big. Deep dives into the characters’ histories, longer and more intense action sequences, a greatly expanded narrative—it’s the very definition of a superhero epic. A giant, high-energy movie like Snyder’s new cut of his 2017 film needs an equally massive and imaginative score—one that would establish themes that could be built on for subsequent solo films. Even more challenging, that score would need be recorded quickly and under unprecedented circumstances and would require about twice the amount of music as a regular film. Finally, the whole thing would happen under the figurative eye of millions of rabid fans who have been clamoring for this movie to be released for four years.
Enter Tom Holkenborg.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League isn’t Holkenborg’s first go at scoring a DC blockbuster. He contributed music to Snyder’s previous film, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, under his electronic music moniker Junkie XL with Hans Zimmer. However, Zack Snyder’s Justice League is the first time Holkenborg’s gone solo on a DC project and he certainly didn’t start small. With a runtime of over four hours and a cast that includes six of DC’s most iconic heroes as well as dozens of well-known villains and supporting characters, scoring the Snyder Cut was a massive undertaking—something that was made all the more impressive by the fact that it happened entirely during the pandemic.
With the full soundtrack now available for purchase or streaming, the time seemed right for a chat with Holkenborg about how this rousing new score came together.
