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How Rob Simonsen Scored ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’

Scoring Deadpool’s foray into the MCU required a certain sound and tone that would resonate with fans. Composer Rob Simonsen was tasked with finding that sound.

Composer Rob Simonsen works on the score to Deadpool & Wolverine from Marvel Studios.

In July, the Marvel Cinematic Universe grew with the inclusion of Deadpool & Wolverine. The new action film features the irreverent Deadpool (played by Ryan Reynolds) teaming up with clawed favorite Wolverine (played by Hugh Jackman.) Director Shawn Levy handpicked composer Rob Simonsen to handle the score after working together on The Adam Project. Simonsen has been in the game for decades, writing music for Stranger Things (also with Levy), Ghostbusters: Afterlife, 500 Days of Summer, The Whale, and more. Given its sheer size and popularity, scoring the MCU proved a different beast. 

A few days after the film release, Discogs spoke with Simonsen about the process, pulling inspiration from preview Marvel entries, working with the London Contemporary Orchestra, and more. 

Deadpool & Wolverine (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is available now on Discogs and features Simonsen’s track, “LFG (Theme from Deadpool & Wolverine),” along with other music played throughout the film. 

Deadpool & Wolverine (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Various
2024
Rock, Pop, Stage & Screen, Soundtrack
2 x Vinyl, LP, Album
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Discogs: How much inspiration did you take from previous films in the MCU? Were you concerned with instrumental and tonal consistency?

Rob Simonsen: There are a few different flavors in the score, which are pretty deliberate. The first flavor is things that speak to Deadpool and his character a bit more, which are more electronic and orchestral. I wanted to build him a sturdy theme that could be rendered in an orchestral kind of way or played as a melody on a single instrument.

What became apparent as we started working was that this is Deadpool’s foray into the MCU and, as such, it needs to sound like it’s Deadpool entering into the MCU. And so there was a general feeling of the sound world that probably was most encapsulated or crystallized by Alan Silvestri’s work on The Avengers, a traditional straight-ahead orchestral approach to scoring. That flavor was in there because we should resonate with Deadpool’s experience of entering the universe. We did have fun quoting The Avengers themes a couple of times. We pulled in some themes from Logan, and it was super fun to touch on those. 

Other than that, I really wanted it to feel like this film had its own theme and its sound, and Deadpool has his theme and sound, so there are times when it feels much more like Deadpool, but a lot of it is a more traditional orchestral approach because that’s the universe that Deadpool loves and is a fan of and is finding himself in.

The Avengers (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Alan Silvestri
2012
Stage & Screen, Score, Soundtrack, Theme
CD, Album
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So the main thing you took from The Avengers was the orchestral instrumentation?

Simonsen: Yeah, besides quoting the theme a couple of times. Shawn and Ryan’s desires for this film were largely orchestral. They wanted choir and a lot of solo French horn because that’s something that moves them, and I think in that regard, it’s probably referencing more of the mid-1980s action-adventure films that you would hear with James Horner and Alan Silvestri and a lot of those classic scores.

Shawn’s a little older, and Ryan is a year older than me. So we all have similar touchstones for that kind of classic movie orchestral sound, and that’s what moves them and gets them going, and it does for me, too. So, I was happy to oblige and lean in that direction.

Besides what you mentioned, what other input did Shawn Levy give you? 

Simonsen: We didn’t have many creative conversations before I started giving him things, which is how we’ve fallen into working. I want a pure response without having too much be prescribed. My early sketches were very electronic, and it was more about trying to nail a Deadpool theme and a Deadpool vibe.

The track “LFG” was the first sketch I sent him, and he loved it. He thought it was a little bonkers and liked that a lot. But then we made sure to craft it with a theme that you could sing along to. 

After I gave him the initial sketches, he expressed his desire to have a more traditional orchestral approach. And so I wrote the track “Deadpool Has a Theme.” I think once we had that, Shawn felt like the basis of the film or covered it, and then we sent that package on to Ryan, who loved it, and then on to Marvel, who loved it, and then I think we felt like we had the colors in the palette that we needed for the score.

Composer Rob Simonsen works on Deadpool & Wolverine.

Can you explain the initial brainstorming process?

Simonsen: It started with the script, and I started sketching in the script phase. Then they started shooting. Pretty soon after I read the script, they started sending over dailies, and that was when it was obvious to me that a lot of the things that were more bonkers and bananas might not have much of a place because there’s just a lot of emotional dialogue scenes in Deadpool & Wolverine.

Once I started seeing that, it helped guide the sketches. I was putting stuff up to picture, but I knew where I was putting things up might not be correct. The picture I had wasn’t fully edited. So I used it as a general testing ground and then sent music on to Shawn. He was playing that on set, and they started using it in the edit. So when the film did start coming to me in sequences, there was a fair amount of my temp that I had created, and Shawn is good at communicating. He’d say, “Now we need more of maybe just an electronic ambient version for this and that.” It’s this evolving process as you are getting the film together.

Stranger Things 4: Soundtrack From The Netflix Series
Various
2022
Electronic, Jazz, Rock, Reggae, Funk / Soul, Pop, Stage & Screen, Soundtrack, Synth-pop, Alternative Rock, Italo-Disco, Surf, Rock & Roll, Hard Rock, Speed Metal
2 x Vinyl, LP, Compilation
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And was that similar to how you worked with Shawn in the past? 

Simonsen: Yeah, it was almost the same process with The Adam Project. I got sent a script. I started sketching once I saw some scenes. We dialed in the [titular] suite. Once he had that, he played it on set and got people in the zone. That was the first time I worked with Shawn, and I think there is a growing trust and familiarity in our process with each other now that we’re two big films deep.

On Stranger Things, he introduced me to the Duffer brothers. He called me and said, “We want to do these things with season 4 of Stranger Things. Would you be into it?” I knew that Kate Bush song. I loved that Kate Bush song. My objective for Stranger Things was to blow that song into a four-minute epic orchestral piece. I was very excited to be a part of it. That was just Shawn handing me off to the Duffers, and we had a conversation, I got what they wanted and then went off and did my thing. There were very minimal notes on that, and then we recorded in London and went into the show, and it was a pretty smooth and quick process on that one.

Did you feel any existing pressure from the fandom or just the overwhelming amount of wait behind it?

Simonsen: It’s funny. I didn’t ever succumb to the possibility of having anxiety about something like this. I think it was because early on, it felt like this was just the process that Shawn and I had with The Adam Project. I felt insulated, so it was working with Shawn, and then it would be working with Ryan. The studio largely just left us alone. What became apparent very quickly was Marvel was letting Shawn drive the ship. The film was so funny to me, and it was so enjoyable to watch. When I would score something, if it made it more enjoyable, if it made it funnier, if it made me smile more, then I felt pretty satisfied.

For the first half of the process, I was waiting for the other shoe to drop, but the studio had almost no notes on the score, so I felt like this was just Shawn and Ryan, and our main goal was to have fun and to feel things as much as we could. I felt protected. This was probably some of the most fun I’ve had in my entire life because it was all just about raising the laughter and the smiles and the fun and the emotion.

Like A Prayer
Madonna
2016
Electronic, Synth-pop
Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue
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How long did recording take? 

Simonsen: We broke it up into two sessions. In the first session, we were there for six days at Abbey Road Studio One. We recorded orchestra, choir, percussion, and soloists, and we did some sessions where the orchestra was all together, but we did a lot where they were separated just so that you have control in the mix stage. 

Then we went away for about three weeks or so, and we came back again for another four days. Then we recorded the choir for Madonna‘s “Like a Prayer” piece, and then Madonna had a note, which was a great note, and we addressed the note. Then we recorded a choir in America with the Faithful Bible Central Gospel Choir, led by Keith Allen, and he just brought these amazing singers, and it lifted that whole sequence at the end.

It probably was five or six weeks of pretty consistent work. So it was pretty full on, but I have to say it was very smooth, and all the musicians were super fun to work with, and it was just a ball. It was a great time. [The movie] just had this glow from the top down. It was infectious. The musicians said it was some of the most fun they’ve had in years, and it felt like a bright spot for all of us.

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