Black Widow gets a new composer after coronavirus delay

(Image credit: Marvel Studios)

It’s all change for the Black Widow movie. Lorne Balfe – who scored Mission: Impossible Fallout and Bad Boys For Life among others – will step in to take over from Alexandre Desplat as composer. This comes after the MCU movie, the first of Marvel Phase 4, was indefinitely delayed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Film Music Reporter confirms that Balfe has “recently been scoring” Black Widow. 

Desplat (The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Shape of Water) had been brought in as the original composer, but is now out. He also suffered a similar fate with Star Wars: Rogue One and was replaced as reshoots began.

Balfe’s body of work, though, points to him being a good fit for the more action-oriented Black Widow. He co-wrote the music for Modern Warfare 2 (which, as luck would have it, has just recently been remastered) with Hans Zimmer, and has also been instrumental – pun absolutely intended – in collaborating with Zimmer on Inception, The Dark Knight, and Dunkirk. He even wrote some music for The Bee Movie. Truly a man for all seasons.

Black Widow herself, Scarlett Johansson, has recently spoken about the movie in the latest issue of Total Film, teasing a measure of unpredictability to proceedings: “I think part of Kevin Feige’s genius is that he always thinks about what fans expect out of these films and then gives them something that they never could’ve dreamed of.”

In what could be music to the ears of many, another unpredictable shift – that of the composer – could help bring out the best in Black Widow. Now, we play the waiting game for a rescheduled release date.

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Bradley Russell

I'm the Senior Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, focusing on news, features, and interviews with some of the biggest names in film and TV. On-site, you'll find me marveling at Marvel and providing analysis and room temperature takes on the newest films, Star Wars and, of course, anime. Outside of GR, I love getting lost in a good 100-hour JRPG, Warzone, and kicking back on the (virtual) field with Football Manager. My work has also been featured in OPM, FourFourTwo, and Game Revolution.