The soundtrack for Zack Snyder’s Justice League is now online, and fans can listen to the heroes’ themes and motifs. The highly-anticipated superhero team-up movie continues the story that left off with Snyder’s Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and unites the world’s finest heroes – Batman (Ben Affleck), Superman (Henry Cavill), Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), The Flash (Ezra Miller), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), and Cyborg (Ray Fisher) – for the first time on the big screen.


Justice League brings together six major DC superheroes for an ultimate showdown with the villainous Steppenwolf and his army of Parademons, which also means each hero will have their own motifs and themes that will be present throughout the film (and possibly in future installments as well). Junkie XL, who composed the music for Batman V Superman alongside Hans Zimmer and was hired to score the music for Justice League as well, was replaced by Danny Elfman during the film’s post-production. Elfman later confirmed plans to incorporate his 1989 Batman theme as well as John Williams’ Superman: The Movie theme into Justice League, but that’s not the only thing he’s done with the soundtrack.


Elfman created motifs and themes for each superhero in the movie, though it’s worth noting that the “themes” for Batman (“The Final Battle”), Superman (“Friends and Foes”), and Wonder Woman (“Wonder Woman Rescue”) are more of motifs in the film, for the characters’ previously established DCEU themes are either not found or are not prominent in Justice League. You can listen to the soundtrack by watching the video in the section above.


Aquaman’s motif (“Aquaman in Atlantis”) heavily resembles horror music, which may be an understandable direction for the character considering that his underwater kingdom is uncharted territory for the shared universe and for films in general. What’s more, the Aquaman movie is being helmed by notable horror director James Wan, so a horror-esque motif is actually quite fitting. The Flash’s motif (found in “Spark of the Flash”), on the other hand, is remarkably similar to the theme song for The CW’s The Flash. As for Cyborg (“Enter Cyborg”), his music is quite calming and more solemn compared to the other themes and motifs, which perfectly fits the character and his past.


So far, one of the biggest challenges posed to the franchise’s music composers is not reusing themes used in previous films or trilogies. Zimmer attempted to differentiate his music for Ben Affleck’s Batman from the memorable themes he created for Christian Bale’s Batman in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy. What’s more, it’s understandably tough for Elfman to create something new when he recently composed the music for Joss Whedon’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. But, it sounds like Elfman’s Justice League soundtrack contains unique and nostalgic motifs for longtime fans, while also laying the groundwork for future themes to develop.