When it came time to pick a composer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Hans Zimmer was put in a tough spot. Having scored Zack Snyder’s reboot Man of Steel, he no doubt wanted to continue building on the themes and sounds of that film in Snyder’s follow-up. However, instead of a simple Superman sequel, Snyder and Warner Bros. opted to reboot Batman with the titan-clashing Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, meaning Zimmer was faced with crafting yet another Batman theme just a few years after wrapping his iconic Dark Knight Trilogy with Christopher Nolan (which, people forget, began with a collaboration between Zimmer and James Newton Howard before evolving into solo Zimmer for Dark Knight Rises).

Regardless, Zimmer found a way around potentially slighting Nolan—he enlisted his friend and collaborator Junkie XL to co-compose the Batman v Superman score, letting Tom Holkenborg (aka Junkie XL) take point on the Batman theme while Zimmer handled the Superman music.


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Image via Warner Bros.

All of this to say that, hey, the new Batman theme is here! A few weeks ago, the first piece of music from Zimmer and Junkie XL’s score was released online, and now a new track called “Men Are Still Good (The Batman Suite)” has been made available for your listening pleasure. It’s…interesting, I guess. Junkie XL has a very specific skillset, and is a tight fit with films like Mad Max: Fury Road, but the steely/percussion-driven sound isn't right for everything. This track feels more like video game music than an iconic film theme, but I’ll reserve full judgement until hearing the full score within the context of the film.

Take a listen to the track below (via ScreenCrush), after which you can revisit Zimmer and Danny Elfman’s takes on the Dark Knight, and click here to pre-order the full soundtrackBatman v Superman: Dawn of Justice opens in theaters on March 23rd.


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Image via Warner Bros.