For music nerds, the annual assemblage of the Musical Anatomy of a Superhero panel is a must-do event each year and for San Diego Comic-Con 2025 this fandom was explored in its 11th iteration with a chat led by iconic composer Michael Giacchino.

Here’s some of what we learned at the “Musical Anatomy of a Superhero” panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2025.

The panel was moderated by the iconic composer Michael Giacchino (Fantastic Four: First Steps) and featured panelists including Simon Franglen (Avatar: Fire & Ash), Mick Giacchino (The Penguin), Brandon Roberts (Andor), and Alex Seaver (Arcane)

Below are some of the highlights.

  • Almost every panelist said they try and take time to create music for themselves besides working on their projects.
  • Michael said he wanted the Fantastic 4 score to feel different from The Incredibles score even though it was around the same time period. He mixed 60 and 70s with Disney electrical parade
  • Mick said Oswald’s chaos in Penguin led to a demonic string quartet and trash percussion.
      He also said composing is a collaborative process with the filmmaker. Making sure every note is part of the creative process and serves a function
  • Simon said scoring for a theme park is a whole other scale. PandoraL The world of Avatar land has around six hours of music that they recorded just for that land
  • Brandon said the importance of commitment to the story and emotional impact, and how pacing is critical to the score’s effectiveness.
  • Alex says the best advice would be bring your friends together and create music you can share together
    • He said composing for Arcane is basically him making two 4-6 minutes music videos for such amazing action sequences in the anime

Photos

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See it for Yourself

San Diego Comic-Con takes place July 24 – July 27, 2025.

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