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Why Man of Steel didn’t re-use John Williams’ Superman theme

Keen-eared viewers will notice John Williams' Superman theme is missing from Man of Steel, and this is the reason why it wasn't used

Henry Cavill as Superman in Man of Steel

If you’re familiar with the DCEU, and particularly are a fan of Superman, you will know just how iconic John Williams’ score for the original Superman movie from 1978 is. You’ll also know that in the 2013 Zack Snyder superhero movie Man of Steel, that classic bit of music was missing.

The DC movie has proven to be quite divisive among fans of the comic book character over the years; some love the fresh take on a superhero staple, while others find the change in direction to be the wrong move. Love it or loathe it, it exists, and the action movie did give us a brilliant portrayal of Supes from Henry Cavill, at least.

Now, if only John Williams’ score was in Man of Steel, that would have united the fanbase, right? Well, probably not, and it turns out the filmmakers weren’t allowed to use it anyway. Jay Oliva, the storyboard artist for the film, revealed as much in a recent Twitter post.

“If I had heard that then I would have responded that both Zack and I loved that theme but the studio wouldn’t let us use it because they wanted something new for this Superman. It turned out to be a good thing because Hans’ theme was perfect,” Oliva tweeted in reply to a thread about the films of Zack Snyder and the music used in Man of Steel.

Clearly, Warner Bros were keen to see Snyder and his team come up with something different and more original rather than leaning on the classic interpretation of the character. And that seemingly runs right through from the performance and the story, down to the music, too.

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A good choice, we say. Too many movies and TV series these days are just carbon copies of previous iterations, and it gets pretty boring to see the same thing done again and again.

If you’re a DC aficionado you may want to take a look at our list of the best Batman actors. Or, here’s our guide to the Black Adam release date to show you how the hierarchy of power in the DC universe is going to change.