Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 Is Getting A Score From The Suicide Squad Composer

Filmmaker James Gunn has made a name for himself as someone whose work is heavily reliant on music. His keen sense of where and when to use needle-drops gets all the attention, but equally as important has been the underlying score for his movies. His collaboration with Marvel on both of the "Guardians of the Galaxy" movies has featured Tyler Bates as his regular composer, but that partnership will apparently come to an end with "Volume 3.

It's a bummer that the trilogy that's shaping up to be the MCU's best (I said what I said!) won't remain consistent in terms of music, but at the very least fans can rest easy that Gunn will be reuniting with a familiar face instead: his composer from The Suicide Squad.

Some of the biggest criticisms directed at the MCU have to do with the franchise's villain problem, the insistence on a "house style" of muted color palettes, or the style of humor. 

My personal pet peeve above all others has to do with the MCU's inability to commit to a consistent musical theme through each mini-franchise of characters. "Iron Man" cycled through different composers with each solo movie rather than work with Ramin Djawadi's memorable score from the first film, "Captain America" rarely bothered to bring back the character's classic theme in future installments after establishing it in the first (I'm sensing a trend here), and even Alan Silvestri's perfect "Avengers" music cue was only reused haphazardly and at awkward, generically "epic" moments in "Infinity War" and "Endgame."

Now comes the news from CinemaBlend (via Superhero Hype) that Tyler Bates will not be returning to compose "Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 3," despite doing so for the first two movies in this trilogy. The silver lining in this dark cloud, however, is that Gunn will instead be bringing composer John Murphy over from DC to the MCU after working together on "The Suicide Squad." Murphy comes with an impressive history of work, having served as composer on films like "28 Days Later," "Miami Vice," "Sunshine," and "Kick-Ass." Gunn shared the news while talking to CinemaBlend, saying:

"I had to get off of a zoom right before this zoom because I was talking to all of my heads of department. We were going through the finale of [Volume 3] from shot to shot, to shot, to shot and explaining exactly how each shot was going to be done. Now, this stuff we're going to shoot in May. So this is about just planning. After I get off of this, I'm going to have to go listen to some music that John Murphy wrote that we're going to be playing during the movie. ... I guess I'm spoiling the fact that John Murphy is doing the score for Guardians."

Murphy proved adept at integrating his score during both the frenzied action and quieter character moments throughout "The Suicide Squad," so here's hoping he'll fit right into the "Guardians" world. Preferably without scrapping the established themes from the previous films, for a change.

"Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" is scheduled to release in theaters on May 5, 2023.