Movies

'Black Widow' To Be Scored By Two-Time Oscar Winner Alexandre Desplat

Black Widow Scarlett Johansson smoke
By Hoai-Tran Bui/

Two-time Oscar winning composer Alexandre Desplat, who recently earned a nod for his Little Women score, is lending his particular set of skills to the score of Marvel's Black Widow. But news of Desplat's involvement doesn't come courtesy of an official statement or announcement, but blink-and-you'll-miss-it text in the latest Black Widow trailer.

The latest Black Widow trailer was full of exciting new glimpses of the long-awaited Black Widow solo movie starring Scarlett Johansson. But amid all the explosions and fights with the mysterious villain Taskmaster, an even more exciting development was shown in the credits of the trailer. Only eagle-eyed Nerdist editor Andrea Towers was able to spot that text, sharing a screencap of the credits in the new trailer that showed the words "Music by Alexandre Desplat."

This is exciting for a number of reasons. One of the biggest criticisms of Marvel is that its scores are largely forgettable — with the exception of the Avengers theme composed by Alan Silvestri and Ludwig Göransson's Oscar-winning Black Panther score. But perhaps Desplat, who has scored for everything from low-budget independent productions to large-scale blockbusters such as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 & Part 2, could change that. Desplat has two Academy Awards under his belt for his scores for The Shape of Water and The Grand Budapest Hotel and recently earned his 11th nomination for his lilting Little Women score (the latter of which Black Widow star Florence Pugh recently earned an Oscar nod for starring in).

Neither Marvel nor Desplat have officially confirmed the composer's involvement in the film.

Directed by Cate Shortland from a screenplay by Jac Schaeffer and  Ned Benson, Black Widow arrives in theaters on May 1, 2020.

At birth the Black Widow (aka Natasha Romanova) is given to the KGB, which grooms her to become its ultimate operative. When the U.S.S.R. breaks up, the government tries to kill her as the action moves to present-day New York, where she is a freelance operative.

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