Fantastic Four: First Steps Composer Reveals Secret Second Score You May Never Hear — And Confirms Werewolf by Night Sequel

Michael Giacchino did the musical equivalent of hitting the big red reset button on Marvel's Fantastic Four: First Steps. He wrote an entire score, watched it against the cut, and then scrapped the whole thing because it just didn’t feel right. That’s not common, and it says a lot about how much the movie itself shifted late in the game.

"I actually wrote a whole other score for this film that you probably won’t ever hear. I just remember seeing it for the first time with the music and something didn’t feel right," Giacchino told Deadline.

Why he started from scratch

According to Giacchino, he composed the first version of the score for an earlier cut of the movie. Then the Matt Shakman-directed film went through some widely reported edits — including a full sequence with John Malkovich as Red Ghost getting tossed — and the vibe changed. When he played his music against that newer cut, he realized the original cues weren’t landing anymore. His reaction, boiled down: this isn’t working.

So he went back to the drawing board. He says he used a pickup day on the film — yes, one of those late-production windows where big movies fine-tune things — to overhaul the score. Chalk it up to blockbuster chaos: lots of moving parts, and the music has to match whatever version of the story actually makes it to screen. As he put it to Deadline, everyone is making their best guess as they go, and sometimes the first guess isn’t the right one.

The Giacchino of it all

If anyone’s built for a pivot like this, it’s Giacchino. He’s scored everything from Lost to The Batman, and he’s the guy who sneaks groan-worthy puns into track titles like it’s a sport. He knows how to chase a tone, even when the target moves.

What he’s directing next

Giacchino isn’t just writing music. Deadline also notes he’s directing a follow-up to Marvel’s Werewolf by Night, and he’s got an additional, still-under-wraps project set up at Warner Bros.

What’s next on Marvel’s calendar

• Wonder Man hits Disney Plus in January.
• Spider-Man: Brand New Day swings into theaters next July.