‘Captain Marvel’ Marks the Debut of the MCU’s First Female Composer

In bringing Pinar Toprak on board for such a vital tentpole film, Marvel is changing the landscape for women composers for the better.

With every new Captain Marvel announcement, the Marvel Cinematic Universe only seems to be upping the ante of our expectations in the best possible way. I still remember the sheer palpable joy that accompanied San Diego Comic-Con 2016 when Oscar-winning actress Brie Larson was officially cast as Carol Danvers. That was the first concrete development for the film, which will be the first solo outing for a female superhero in the MCU. As we continued to watch the Captain Marvel production closely, it thankfully keeps delivering.

Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck of Mississippi Grind and It’s Kind of a Funny Story fame were eventually chosen to helm Captain Marvel, putting at least one woman behind the camera of Carol’s crucial story. The film then went through a slew of scriptwriters on its journey from concept to screen, which included contributions from Guardians of the Galaxy‘s Nicole Perlman and Inside Out‘s Meg LeFauve. Marvel Studios has since brought in more women to pen Captain Marvel, adding Tomb Raider‘s Geneva Robertson-Dworet, and GLOW‘s Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch to the list of scriptwriters working alongside Boden and Fleck.

Captain Marvel has since made another breakthrough, this time in its music department. Variety has revealed that Pinar Toprak will be scoring Captain Marvel, making her the first woman to compose music for any MCU film to date. Prior to Captain Marvel, Toprak’s credits already demonstrate a burgeoning career. She has been regularly composing since 2003, and has received two International Film Music Critics Association Awards for her work, namely the romantic comedy The Lightkeepers and the documentary The Wind Gods. In the last year or so, Toprak contributed to the popular video game Fortnite provided additional music to Zack Snyder’s Justice League, and currently writes the music for Syfy’s serial Superman prequel, Krypton.

Toprak’s involvement in Captain Marvel is nothing short of stellar, especially when it comes to putting women composers in general on the map. It’s no secret that when it comes to films that earn top dollar, women tend to be sorely underrepresented. However to make matters worse, things are particularly dire in the music department. San Diego State University’s Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film revealed in their annual Celluloid Ceiling report that a mere 3% of composers who worked on the top-grossing films of 2017 were women, and this shameful figure was but a replication of their results from 2016.

This measly 3% is obviously not at all indicative of the actual talent and the sheer number of women composers who are out there struggling to make their talents known. Notably, filmmaker Sara Nesson highlighted some of these fantastic women in her documentary Women Who Score (which is available to watch in full below). The short film centers on a concert sponsored by the Alliance for Women Film Composers, which was co-founded by Emmy-nominated and winning composers Laura Karpman (Paris Can Wait), Miriam Cutler (The Hunting Ground), and Lolita Ritmanis (Batman: The Killing Joke). The aim of the showcase was to promote the talents of just 20 composers, allowing them to perform their scores with a live orchestra.

Toprak joining the Marvel family marks something momentous for women composers as a whole. For a small composer getting her big break, this could be the start of an illustrious career. Yet for the landscape at large, Toprak’s hiring should be treated as the mere tip of the iceberg, with many more monumental announcements like it to come.

The post ‘Captain Marvel’ Marks the Debut of the MCU’s First Female Composer appeared first on Film School Rejects.