Zack Snyder Releases Sample Of Junkie XL's Justice League Score

Zack Snyder's Justice League is just a month away, and the director is working hard to hype the picture up before its debut on HBO Max. If you haven't been paying attention, it would be easy to dismiss it as a director's cut, but the project has involved extensive reshoots, re-done visual effects, and a totally new score that replaces Danny Elfman's score with the one originally created by Thomas Holkenborg, better known as Junkie XL. Snyder dropped the first track from the score on social media today to give us a hint of what we can expect. (You can also check out our gallery breaking down all the major differences.)

Snyder had previously revealed a short clip of the track, titled The Crew at Warpower. This is the full song, though, clocking in at 6:49. It definitely has some of Junkie XL's trademark sound, with the percussion calling to mind some of the best tracks from his work on Mad Max: Fury Road. Aside from Justice League and Fury Road, Junkie XL has also worked on films like Alita: Battle Angel, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Deadpool.

Before Snyder stepped away from the original Justice League, he had Junkie XL scoring the film. When Snyder left, though, Warner Bros. made a bunch of decisions that seemed aimed at making the project a bit safer. The studio called in Joss Whedon, still fairly fresh off the success of Marvel's Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron, presumably with the hope that he'd bring success to yet another superhero team. They also replaced composer Junkie XL with Danny Elfman.

Elfman had previously scored Tim Burton's Batman and Batman Returns, among many, many others. Importantly, he composed the Batman theme used in that 1989 Batman film, and then again in the classic Batman: The Animated Series, which has become almost synonymous with the Dark Knight even outside of those projects. The 2017 Justice League film once again used the theme to signal the appearance of Batman.

Zack Snyder's Justice League premieres on HBO Max, with the score by Junkie XL, on March 18, 2021.