Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: James Gunn Teases The Suicide Squad Composer's "Incredible" Score

By Jenna Anderson

Details are gradually beginning to come to light about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, James Gunn's latest (and seemingly final) chapter in the story of the Marvel misfits. In addition to the news that Will Poulter has been cast as Adam Warlock, it was revealed that composer Tyler Bates, who worked on the music for the first two Guardians films, would not be returning for the third installment. Now, we have a bit of an indication of who will be composing Vol. 3's score — and it's a name fans will recognize. Gunn took to Twitter on Saturday to reveal that John Murphy, who recently composed the music for Gunn's DC film The Suicide Squad, will be working on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. He also teased that Murphy's work on the film is already "incredible", and that one track made Gunn's sister-in-law "burst into tears."

Murphy's score on The Suicide Squad has become a beloved part of DC canon since the film was released earlier this summer, with tracks like "So This Is The Famous Suicide Squad" and "Ratism" taking on lives of their own. As Murphy told ComicBook.com earlier this year, working with Gunn on the project made him eager to collaborate with him again — especially on another superhero movie.

"Yeah, I'd love to," Murphy revealed to ComicBook.com. "I'd never really done a superhero film before. I mean, we'd done Kick-Ass, but that was kind of, in a way, a piss-take of superhero films. It was, by definition, someone trying to be a superhero, so that was very ironic and black humor. I kind of dipped my toe in a little bit, but I think having done one now, I feel like I've got the chops now, finally. I would love to do it, because when you do something with that scale, you feel lifted by it. You want to get in earlier, you want to work later. Because you feel that wonderful scale of like, "This is big movie sh-t. It's fantastic. So, yeah, I would absolutely. I mean, I'd do anything with James. I'd do a home movie if he wanted me. But yeah, that genre, now I've done it, I would absolutely do [again]. And I'd be a bit wiser for it too, I think."

"I think with James, I mean, what's obvious in all of his movies is he loves music," Murphy said elsewhere in the interview. "To him, it's an intrinsic part of the storytelling. And a lot of movies are made and then it's an afterthought of "We need a song here, we needed a song here." There's none of that with him. The songs are actually in the script as you're reading the script, which is amazing. So I knew what all these songs were going to be. There was all these little signposts. So that really helps. And, I think, because he was in a band too, and I didn't come through music school. I was a guitarist in a punk band. That's where I started, and then I ended up being a session player and going on tour and making records, and then I kind of fell into doing movies as a songwriter to begin with. So my dialogue is very being in a band, and so knowing that he was also in a band and knowing that he was a big punk fan. It was very comfortable. There was none of that, "Oh my God, I'm going to get found out here," which happens with me. So it was very comfortable and very easy and right from day one. It was a real collaboration. He trusted me to come up with whatever ideas I wanted to come up with, and he said, "Just go with your gut. Throw them at me, and then we go to work." And that was kind of how it was. There was no big rule book from him or no big scheme. It was just, "Give me your best shot, and then we'll work from there." And so that's how it was."

What do you think of John Murphy serving as composer on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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