Legendary film composer Hans Zimmer is retiring from scoring superhero movies now that he's finished collaborating with producer Junkie XL on the score of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. "I have officially retired from the superhero business," said Zimmer in an interview with BBC HARDtalk. "This one was very hard for me to do, to try to find new language." Zimmer scored Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy and Zack Snyder's Man of Steel, and he's contributed to movies like The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

It's not like Zimmer's burnt out by the workload: he's found the time to score dozens of animated movies, video games, and dramas in between his superhero blockbusters. But the sonic language of superhero movies is limiting, and Zimmer's already used a decade's worth of ideas on both Batman and Superman. There's also an entire Justice League's worth of characters approaching in his rear view mirror, all of whom are going to need their own distinctive themes and signature sounds. If working on Batman v Superman was a slog, I'm sure the prospect of coming up with a dozen new scores over the next 10 years is unappealing.

If you're a fan of Zimmer's work, you don't have to worry. He isn't leaving scoring behind entirely: he's teaming up with Nolan again to score the upcoming war drama Dunkirk, and he has a handful of other projects slated for release throughout 2016 and 2017. Don't expect any of them to feature superpowers or fancy capes.