When Marvel’s mega-movie, Avengers: Age of Ultron released a star-studded, robotic whirlwind of a new poster yesterday, it was noticed that the updated credits happened to be crammed full of newsworthy tidbits. In addition to confirming the presence of Anthony Mackie’s Falcon and others, it also lists composer, Danny Elfman as a musical contributor. While Elfman is a cinematic musical icon, his inclusion is especially noteworthy since he also happened to work on the music for Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy. Could this mean that the impending arrival of Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe might be set to some familiar tunes?
ComicBook.com picked up on Danny Elfman’s name being included in the credit block of the new poster (noted for providing "Additional Music"), but the site also goes down a speculative, but nevertheless intriguing slippery slope of inductive reasoning, suggesting that Elfman’s involvement could be an indication that Spider-Man may have a surprise cameo in The Avengers: Age of Ultron that is fueled by Elfman’s brilliant and memorable theme from the original Spider-Man trilogy. Furthermore, there is further suggestion that the gig could be a gateway for the composer to work on some other upcoming titles in the Marvel Cinematic Universe family - namely Captain America: Civil War, which is currently the film in which Spider-Man is rumored to make his MCU debut.
Danny Elfman carries a surreal resume of some of the most recognizable cinematic score compositions from the last 30 years, including another seminal comic book film in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman. Yet, with his name now attached to The Avengers: Age of Ultron, his work on Sam Raimi’s 2002 Spider-Man film certainly leaps out as something that just MIGHT be more than a coincidence (which it could very well could be). Elfman is one of the biggest players on the cinematic score scene, and the fact that he was brought on board this gigantic Avengers sequel for the seemingly simple task of "additional music" – having had no previous involvement with Marvel Studios - raises a curious red flag.
And would anyone really object to the return of Danny Elfman’s pulsating, adrenaline-inducing theme following the comparatively forgettable music of the Amazing Spider-Man movies?
Of course, it cannot be made clear enough that, as of now, this idea is nothing more than pure, fun-filled speculation. Besides, if we really, REALLY want to go further down that nerdy rabbit hole of unlikelihood, we could even use the Elfman angle to speculate that after the Wall-Crawler’s relaunch in Captain America: Civil War, that the first solo Spidey film might be helmed, as one recent rumor suggested, by none other than a triumphantly returning Sam Raimi himself! And yes, that’s probably going way too far, but it’s certainly to fun to imagine geek-worthy moments that have little to no chance in coming to fruition. After all, we spent years thinking in a similar way about Spider-Man one day joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe, acknowledging that the idea seemed like little more than a pipe dream. Now it’s a reality, and so pretty much any scenario seems like it could have merit.
One thing we can at least count on for now is that Spider-Man will be bringing his tights and spider-senses with him into Captain America: Civil War when it hits theaters on May 6, 2016.
