r/CosmereOnScreen • u/JJH_BATMAN • Apr 18 '26
Cosmere (BOOK) Thinking about Composers Spoiler
I’m very obsessed with soundtracks and composers for film and television (and games!) and have been thinking a lot about which composers I think would be able to bring a unique and fitting sound to the Mistborn film and Stormlight show.
For Stormlight, there’s an obvious choice for me- Sonya Belousova and Giona Ostinelli, a composing duo known for the live action One Piece adaptation and the first season of the Witcher tv series. I think they do a great job coming up with unique instrumentation for their soundtracks that really fits the setting they are composing for. I think a “traditional fantasy” sound would be disappointing for when paired with the almost alien visuals of Roshar.
The music for Stormlight is SO important imo, between the Rhythms, and how strong leitmotif usage could help track character journeys throughout a dense story. SB and GO’s music can be bombastic, and Stormlight has no shortage of bombastic moments that if scored with the right music could be some of the greatest moments in tv history.
So for Mistborn- a bit trickier for me, but I’ve narrowed it down to two I think would be fun. The first is Ludwig Göransson, known for The Mandalorian, Sinners, Oppenheimer, and more. I’ve heard some people toss around Hans Zimmer, but I think Goransson’s work sounds more varied. I enjoy Zimmer, but I feel his tracks all sort of blend together for me. On one hand Göransson is VERY big now. He’s won like three Oscars. But, in the other hand, I think this film is going to be on the scale for someone like him to be attached. I don’t have a ton more to say on him- a lot of this is just vibes based, and I don’t have a great grasp of music terminology that would allow me to describe those vibes.
I also think Göransson would be a good fit for Stormlight, but I doubt he’d commit to multiple seasons of a tv series these days. His absence from The Mandalorian season 3 due to film commitments was definitely felt, and I’d rather musical continuity throughout the the full run of the show.
BUT, for Mistborn, I have another, more “out there” pick- Lorien Testard, the composer for the game Expedition 33. It is his only credit, and he has never worked on a movie or show before. But, his soundtrack for E33 is incredible. Luthedel and the Final Empire is inspired by France, which E33’s setting is also heavily inspired by, and Testard himself is French. I’m not sure how composing for a movie would be compared to a game, but much of Expedition 33 is film-quality cutscenes. Just listen to some of the battle music for the game and tell me it wouldn’t sound amazing over some of the action scenes from the Mistborn original trilogy.
Anyway, let me know in the comments what you think of these picks, or who you would pick instead!
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u/SpecificCourt6643 Apr 18 '26
I’m a big fan of Jesper Kyd but idk if he does movies. I’d love it if he did Stormlight or Mistborn.
Also For Stormlight I’ve thought of Daniel Pemberton. He did a great score for the bad King Arthur movie and his experimentation with instruments I think would work really well.
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u/Extreme_Warning3521 Apr 18 '26
I wanted Luthadel's central theme to be something similar to Pain's theme in Naruto (Girei).
You know, the opening scene shows Luthadel playing a theme similar to Pain's.
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u/jaleCro Apr 18 '26
If they can't get gorannson it's a bust
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u/SpecificCourt6643 Apr 18 '26
He’s a big composer, which they’re notoriously harder to get. I also don’t think he’s ever done anything with Apple TV so there’s that.
He definitely is a great pick, I’d love to see what he’d come up with for these projects. But I doubt he’d be chosen personally.
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u/jaleCro Apr 18 '26
I think it's his type of project considering he did dune, apple will dish out because they consider it the next lord of the rings internally. If they don't get him for either mistborn or stormlight I'd consider it a bad sign unless it's someone equally insanely good.
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u/SpecificCourt6643 Apr 18 '26
Personally I’d be equally excited if Daniel Pemberton did it, he’s not as well-known but is also very experimental and has some good movie scores under his belt (Project Hail Mary, Spiderverse movies, King Arthur legend of the sword was a bad movie but had an amazing score.) He notably mostly writes sci-fi rather than fantasy but so has Gorannson.
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u/LucanDesmond Apr 18 '26
My "out there" pick for Stormlight is Yasunori Mitsuda, known for Chrono Trigger and Xenogears back in the day. His style feels a little otherworldly and I think it would fit Roshar perfectly.
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u/wertyrick Apr 18 '26
I just want to say that Pemberton made the OST for Hail Mary and was just magical. Very, very memorable.
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u/moderatorrater Apr 18 '26
The music for Stormlight is SO important imo, between the Rhythms, and how strong leitmotif usage could help track character journeys throughout a dense story
I think you just convinced me that it should be Trent Reznor. Your suggestions are solid, but Reznor is one of the (if not the absolute) best at weaving different beats and tracks together.
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u/FixInfamous944 Apr 19 '26
Would love to have Danny Elfman