Black Widow Reportedly Switches Composers

The Lego Batman Movie and Bad Boys For Life composer Lorne Balfe will take over the scoring duties on Marvel Studios's Black Widow, replacing the previously-reported Alexandre Desplat, Film Music Reporter says in a new report. This is the second major Disney project -- after Rogue One: A Star Wars Story -- that Desplat has been replaced on in the course of the last few years. Desplat previously won the "Best Original Score" for his work on Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water and Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel. In total he has been nominated for eleven Academy Awards in the category.

Balfe also recently scored His Dark Materials. The series, based on Phillip Pullman's novels, is set in an alternate world where humans live alongside daemons, animal companions that are physical manifestations of that person's soul.

"I tried to do some research to see what fans would be listening to, and I found some references to the music of Algar, so I took some inspiration from that," Balfe told ComicBook.com of His Dark Materials. "To me, I've tried to just do my best to what people might feel with these characters. And also everybody working on the show are fans of the books -- whether it's the costume department or the makeup department or the camera department, everybody's wanted to be involved with this because of their love of the books. It's apparently a team effort."

Directed by Cate Shortland, Black Widow follows Natasha Romanova (Scarlett Johansson) through events that took place between Captan America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. In the story, she will deal with her dark and violent past and face off against old friends and foes. The film also stars Florence Pugh, David Harbour, Rachel Weisz, Ray Winstone, William Hurt, and O-T Fagbenie. It was written by Thor: Ragnarok's Eric Pearson along with The Hustle's Jac Schaeffer and Ned Benson of The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby.

The film was originally set to be released in May, but has been delayed due to the novel coronavirus pandemic that has brought Hollywood to a screeching halt. No new date has yet been set for the movie's release, although rumor has it that the story will have minimal impact on the larger continuity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe going forward and the whole release slate will not have to be juggled to ensure Black Widow comes out first when theaters reopen or anything like that.

Other upcoming Marvel Studios projects (with dates subject to change) include The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in August, The Eternals on November 6, WandaVision in December, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on February 12, 2021, Loki in Spring 2021, Spider-Man 3 on July 16, 2021, What If…? in Summer 2021, Hawkeye in Fall 2021, and Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021, and Black Panther 2 on May 6, 2022.