Composer Laura Karpman Takes On Captain America – Part 1

Los Angeles, CA (March 17, 2025)—“The Marvel film aesthetic takes a maximalist approach to music composition. They absolutely love music,” said Captain America: Brave New World composer Laura Karpman, who has a bit of history with the company, having created scores for Marvel Studios Animation’s What If…, Marvel Studios’ Ms. Marvel miniseries, and The Marvels film. She knows going in that projects within the Marvel Comic Universe will be a workout, and for her, that’s the best part.

“Every MCU project is different, but in each one, there’s every type of dramatic situation,” she says. “There’s action, there’s suspense, there’s drama, there’s happiness, there’s sadness, there’s tragedy. There’s everything. That’s what appeals to me.”

Captain America: Brave New World is Karpman’s fourth MCU project with producer and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige. She notes, “Kevin is a lover of music. When you’re sitting in a review or on the mixing stage and he starts whistling the tunes, you know you did a good job. He knows scores; he appreciates scores. He knows how to talk about music. It’s a place where I feel like I can be my total self musically.”

Karpman’s “Ms. Marvel Suite” for the miniseries showcases her ability to blend diverse musical styles into a catchy tune that foregrounds the show’s lead character. The theme’s orchestral opening cue becomes infused with electronic and South Asian elements befitting Kamala Khan—a teenage Pakistani-American girl from Jersey City—perfectly capturing the essence of her character, while at the same time revealing the playfulness in Karpman’s approach to music.

The same is true for her score on Brave New World, where she blends traditional orchestra with drumline, and then adds digitally manipulated instruments, analog synths, prepared piano, and other unexpected design elements. Just as the main character Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) replaced Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) as Captain America, Karpman’s score built on those of Alan Silvestri and Henry Jackman from prior films and series—and yet, it is completely her own style.

It’s a big question in the MCU: What to do with what’s come before? “For this particular film, as it was for Ms. Marvel, the filmmakers wanted it to be original,” says Karpman, who has received five Emmy Awards for her compositions, as well as Grammy and Oscar nominations. “Since Brave New World is a political thriller, much of the theme-writing went into this political thriller realm. There’s a Brave New World theme, but I wouldn’t say it’s a new Captain America theme; I wrote a hero theme for the movie. It’s different, edgy and contemporary, with 808s and reversed military shouts. It’s a strong theme that’s also driven by rhythm.”

Given creative license, Karpman decided to lean into percussion, to tap into Sam Wilson’s Louisiana roots. Her first recording session was with a drumline playing New Orleans-style music. “It’s got swing, but it also can feel military,” she says. “Then I went to the UK and recorded Scottish tattoo military music—it’s like the UK version of a drumline. Those two worlds mash up as the first layer of the score. The percussion acts as the score’s propulsion, moving us with lightning speed through a really amazing story filled with tension.”

She also found inspiration from classic films outside of the MCU, including mid-20th century spy movies such as North by Northwest, and through digital manipulation of those drumline recordings, created a more contemporary version of the style. “You won’t perceive it as that,” she interjects. “The conspiracy theme is propulsive, dynamic and driving. It feels like a totally new take on a mid-century thriller. It starts small until, finally, it explodes at the end. The exercise there was how to build tension for four minutes without breaking it.”

Sound for ‘The Falcon and The Winter Soldier’

Karpman says that she also slightly modified her way of working this time around and “dipped my toe into the world of synthesizers.” Some of it was by design and some of it due to schedule. While scoring What If…, she was also writing the major character themes for Brave New World, so she took the opportunity to record some early ideas with the orchestra.

“I took the analog synths and orchestrated them. Then I digitally manipulated those recordings, too,” she explains. “I was able to play with this idea of sampling an orchestra, manipulating that, and then recording live orchestra on top. It was like this communication between the synthetic and the real, and how they interact with each other. They’re sometimes so bound to each other in the score that you can’t tell what is what.”

TRANSFORMING TRADITION

Starting in June 2024, Karpman spent several months in an intense cycle of writing, recording and manipulating instrumental parts, first coming up with ideas on the piano and then fleshing out cues in Pro Tools using orchestral sample instruments. She’s very comfortable using the orchestra as an instrument, yet isn’t afraid to venture beyond that traditional sound.

“I think many composers aspire to sound like John Williams because he has such mastery of the orchestra, and I love that, too,” she says. “One compelling thing about writing for Marvel films is that certain instruments are part of the musical iconography. For instance, a hero is represented by French horn. Maybe it’s been done a million times, but it works all of those million times that it’s been done. What makes this score different for me and different for Marvel, I think, is the way that orchestral instruments get woven together with synths. They’re not sitting in separate spaces. They’re sitting in exactly the same spaces, and it’s pretty cool.”

COME BACK TOMORROW FOR PART 2!