Superman: Utopias and Ideals in a Score

Well, if you haven’t gone to the cinema yet, I recommend you do, because this week gets interesting.We’re talking about SUPERMAN.

Ah, Superman… a hero born from paper to emerge as a symbol of ideals and hope. But once again, we have an interesting phenomenon.For the second time in a row, in the realm of music, we have John Williams at the center — this time not to narrate wonder, but to design heroism through dynamics and a specific ascending melody. It’s as if, from somewhere perhaps dark, a utopia of exemplary morality and courage were rising: heroism.

Superman is a character that has evolved throughout his trajectory, from comics to screen — that’s more than well known.But how do we remember him?Beyond the typical costumes and personality traits of the emblematic character, the music paints the emotions behind this Superman who, more than a character, I’d call a concept — an architecture of hope written in a score.

Hope is intrinsically linked to desire, always to a goal.Hope surrounds ideals.Hope is a force.And every force implies direction.So, where does idealizing this character as the “model” of heroism lead us?Where does the mythical intro by Williams take us once we connect it to all this?

A Recap Through Time

The first film of this character dates back to 1978, with John Williams shaping what heroism sounds like.His work was continued by Ken Thorne, who decided to keep the intro in the following two films (though really, how could he not?).After that, Williams returned.

In 2006, the hero came back with music by John Ottman (my favorite, if you ask me).From 2013 to 2016, Hans Zimmer composed the music for Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Here something curious happens: Zimmer decided to break away from Superman’s emblematic motif.Why?

Well, Zimmer isn’t new at this — quite the opposite, he’s a master.But what does it mean to open a fissure in the continuity of what represents “exemplary hope”?It’s certainly a risky move, but also one that reveals what this version of Superman was aiming for.

Man of Steel became the highest-grossing film of the franchise, and the one that followed it, the highest in collaboration.This Superman was reinvented completely — aesthetically, in color palette, and of course, in music.With scenes of catastrophe and a much darker tone, it’s as if everyone involved agreed — that’s precisely how partnerships in this industry work: every element is a resource.

This Superman aims to represent humanity itself — perfection through difference. A Superman who questions himself, who recognizes his own strangeness, his emotions… but, at the end of the day, a Superman who finds strength in the imperfection that all that brings. Through it, he finds the direction needed to reconfigure hope in a world very different from that of 1978’s Superman.

All this went hand in hand with the cultural climate of the time — films like Iron Man and The Dark Knight.Because when we look at cultural content, we also have to look at the world: migration, wars, distrust in institutions…

2025 — The Sound of Return

Now back to 2025, and what I find peculiar about the sound fragments of this new film.Composed by John Murphy and David Fleming, this soundtrack feels a bit more… electric, I’d say.But the powerful thing is that it brings back the John Williams theme, saying something like:

“I’ve come back from the journey that was 2013 — and now, I return.”

He returns as an empathetic, sensitive, human Superman —a hero whose most powerful and at the same time most destructive trait has always been his most human: kindness.

Kindness becomes an essential tool, a revolution that crosses chaos and envisions not only hope or utopia, but something even more intimate: love.

Love has always been there — Lois Lane, his parents, his chosen humanity — but here it gains new meaning.It’s no longer accompaniment, but an ethical drive.An impulse that sustains the hero but doesn’t reach its full shape until the end.

Because that ideal of moral perfection, of exemplary integrity, can’t be achieved without first crossing uncertainty, conflict, storm, and fragility.Fulfillment, in this universe, isn’t a starting point: it’s a conquest.

The Music as Conviction

And that’s where we return to the music.The notes written by Williams become crucial.That ascending melody that bursts from the brass section is not only a symbol of heroism but of hope built by persistence.

More than being an embodiment of hope, it’s the opposite: it’s not a song of victory but of conviction.The music rises as if to say:

“I have fallen, I am ruin, but I continue, I grow, I shine.”

That’s the direction of hope: not toward perfect order, but toward the humanity that dares to try.

Superman and his intro encapsulate and design an ideal — the cycle of human construction: a loop of tensions between what we were, what we are, and what we idealize becoming.

To contrast, maybe we should step back and reflect — not on the hopes, utopias, or tools drawn by this franchise,but on our own hopes, the forces they plant in us,and with that… the directions we choose.

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