Superman Trailer Theme Music Released Online: Listen Now

Look up. Warner Bros.’ WaterTower Music officially released composer John Murphy’s Superman theme from the film’s first trailer, which puts an electric guitar riff on John Williams’ soaring music from Richard Donner’s Superman movie. Titled “Theme from Superman (Trailer Version),” the first listen from Murphy’s score slowly builds toward an epic version of Williams’ uplifting and heroic theme music that has been associated with the Man of Steel since Christopher Reeve made us believe a man could fly in 1978.

Hear Murphy’s Superman theme get up, up and away below or listen on Spotify.

[RELATED: Superman Director James Gunn on DCU Connections to the Upcoming Lanterns and Peacemaker: “Every Beat Has to Be In There for the Movie Itself”]

Previously titled Superman: Legacy, writer-director James Gunn’s Superman movie reboot is paying homage to the character’s cinematic legacy with a musical score that invokes the theme music that has been reused in everything from 2006’s Superman Returns to 2017’s Justice League and 2022’s Black Adam.

“There’s nods to Williams, and then also John Murphy’s created this incredibly beautiful score,” Gunn, who collaborated with the British composer on his films The Suicide Squad and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, told reporters about Murphy’s score during a visit to the film’s set.

Gunn noted that Murphy’s scoring of Superman is a more traditional “score, not a soundtrack,” after the filmmaker compiled mix tapes of preexisting songs for his past superhero projects — everything from Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love” in 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy to Wig Wam’s “Do Ya Wanna Taste It” in 2022’s Peacemaker.

“It’s not about the songs. There’s a few songs in it, and of course I chose those songs beforehand, but it isn’t like any of my previous movies, really,” Gunn said. “The score is what drives it. It’s a much, much more of a score film.”

The score-driven Superman includes nods to Williams’ iconic “Superman Fanfare” and “Superman March,” which have since transcended the classic films that starred the late Reeve as the Man of Steel.

Murphy’s track accompanies the teaser trailer’s record-breaking debut: the Superman trailer became “the most viewed and the most talked about trailer in the history of both DC and Warner Bros.,” according to Gunn, who heads DC Studios with producer Peter Safran. The 141-second teaser trailer received over 250 million views and a million social posts in its first 24 hours online.

Superman stars David Corenswet (Twisters) in the title role, with Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) starring as Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult (Juror #2) as Lex Luthor. The cast includes Edi Gathegi (For All Mankind) as Mister Terrific, Isabela Merced (Alien: Romulus) as Hawkgirl, Anthony Carrigan (Barry) as Metamorpho, and Nathan Fillion (The Suicide Squad) as the Guy Gardner Green Lantern, with María Gabriela de Faría (Deadly Class) as The Authority’s Angela Spica/The Engineer and Frank Grillo (DC’s Creature Commandos) as Rick Flag Sr.

DC Studios’ first feature film, Superman soars into theaters July 11, 2025.