Convention - SDCC 2025 : 11th Musical Anatomy of a Superhero – From Gotham to the Galaxy with Mick Giacchino

By Mulder, San Diego, Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel, 24 july 2025

On July 24, 2025, shortly after the 11th Musical Anatomy of a Superhero and Other Heroes panel electrified the San Diego Comic-Con audience, members of the press gathered in a quieter, more intimate setting at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel for a dedicated roundtable with composer Mick Giacchino. Known for his dynamic work across live-action and animated projects, Mick Giacchino brought a mix of humor, insight, and personal reflection to the conversation, offering an unfiltered look at the craft of film and television scoring. It was a rare chance to hear directly from a composer whose career, while closely connected to some of the most popular franchises of our time, has been marked by a distinctive creative voice and a willingness to take risks in diverse genres.

In discussing his recent work, Mick Giacchino delved into the process behind The Penguin, the highly anticipated HBO/DC original series. A lifelong Batman fan, he admitted that scoring this project was nothing short of a dream come true. He spoke with admiration for Colin Farrell’s transformative performance and Cristin Milioti’s captivating presence, emphasizing how their portrayals influenced his musical choices. For Mick Giacchino, character is always the foundation of a score; the music must not only reflect the world the characters inhabit but also the emotional truths they carry. This approach, he noted, also guided his work on Skeleton Crew, the Lucasfilm project set in the Star Wars universe, where balancing the established sonic heritage with fresh, character-driven motifs became a careful act of creative negotiation.

The roundtable also touched on Mick Giacchino’s versatility, which has allowed him to navigate from the irreverent energy of The Muppets Mayhem to the gritty tension of AMC+’s That Dirty Black Bag. He reflected on how projects like Disney’s Zootopia+ and Netflix’s animated feature Extinct required an entirely different tonal language—playful, fast-paced, and emotionally accessible—compared to the darker textures of The Batman, on which he contributed additional music. He shared an anecdote about his early work on Jim Henson’s Turkey Hollow in 2015, recalling how that project gave him both the confidence and the collaborative grounding to push forward into more ambitious scoring opportunities.

A highlight of the discussion was his reflection on the release of his first instrumental EP, Perseverance, in 2021. Mick Giacchino explained that this personal project allowed him to explore musical ideas without the constraints of picture or narrative, creating a space to experiment with textures and harmonies that later found their way, in unexpected forms, into his screen work. He described it as a reminder that a composer’s personal creative growth often fuels their professional output, even in subtle ways. This philosophy—constantly learning, constantly evolving—has been central to his career trajectory.

Throughout the conversation, Mick Giacchino offered candid insights into the pressures of working in the entertainment industry, from tight deadlines to balancing personal creativity with commercial expectations. Yet, rather than framing these challenges as obstacles, he spoke of them as opportunities to refine his craft. His comments reinforced the idea that resilience and adaptability are as vital to a composer’s career as talent. He also touched on the importance of maintaining a sense of play and joy in the creative process, even when working within massive, high-stakes productions.

By the end of the roundtable, it was clear that Mick Giacchino’s career is defined not only by the high-profile nature of his projects but by his deep commitment to storytelling through music. Whether crafting ominous tones for Gotham’s underworld, playful cues for animated characters, or intimate compositions for his own releases, his work demonstrates a rare ability to navigate tone and emotion across vastly different worlds. For those present, the conversation reaffirmed that behind every cue lies a composer who is as dedicated to the human connection of his art as he is to its technical perfection.

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Photos and video : Boris Colletier / Mulderville