MIAMI—Days before Disney's live-action 'Moana' sails into theaters, Lin-Manuel Miranda and the film's teenage star, Catherine Laga'aia, sat down in Miami, still glowing from a first screening. The feeling of stepping inside the Moana world is incredible, and Miranda and Laga'aia clearly felt the awe of the audience, and they came ready to talk about the music, the fan reactions, and a brand-new song built on an idea the animated films could never pull off.
Miranda, who wrote the original 2016 soundtrack, said he had no interest in adding a track just for the sake of it. The breakthrough came from director Thomas Kail, who pitched something only a remake could do: a duet between the original Moana and the new one. In the film's framing, Auli'i Cravalho's 'Moana' has passed into ancestor status, offering guidance to Laga'aia's young wayfinder. "Get off the phone with me, I got it," Miranda recalled thinking the moment Kail described the concept. He wrote it fast, called Hamilton alums Jasmine Cephas Jones and Phillipa Soo to cut the demo, and, because The Rock "would kill me if I didn't," added a verse for Dwayne Johnson's Maui.
The finished track, titled "Along the Way," pairs Cravalho, Laga'aia, and Johnson.
For Miranda, the whole project feels like a full circle. He was still performing in Hamilton across 2015 and 2016 while writing Moana's songs, and Kail, making his feature directing debut here, is the man who directed both Hamilton and Miranda's first show, 'In the Heights.' "It just made me relax, because he's so talented and I knew the movie would be in good hands," Miranda said. He admitted a live-action version once felt like a distant fantasy, joking that he figured it might happen "in like 30 years," and said he's thrilled to actually be part of it now.
For Laga'aia, 'Moana' is a debut on the grandest possible stage. A newcomer from Sydney with Samoan roots, she beat out tens of thousands of hopefuls in a global casting search to play the role Cravalho originated. She described easing into it on a fully built Motunui village set, complete with houses the cast could sit and relax in between takes, before production moved to soundstages where, as she put it, "not very much was real." Building out Moana's home mattered, she said, because "we give the audience something to miss." She's especially excited for viewers to meet the film's takes on familiar faces, from the scene-stealing rooster Heihei to the giant crab and Te Fiti.
Disney's 'Moana' opens July 10, 2026, timed to the 10th anniversary of the animated original. Directed by Kail from a screenplay by Jared Bush and Dana Ledoux Miller, it follows the adventurous daughter of a village chief who answers the ocean's call and sails beyond her reef with the demigod Maui to save her people.
Johnson returns as Maui, becoming the first Disney performer to play the same character in animation and live-action. The supporting cast leans heavily Pacific Islander: John Tui as Chief Tui, Frankie Adams as Sina, and Rena Owen as Gramma Tala, with Jemaine Clement back as the voice of the treasure-hoarding crab Tamatoa. The production is filmed in Atlanta and Hawaii in 2024 and arrives as Disney's next live-action tentpole after Snow White and Lilo & Stitch.
Cravalho, who voiced Moana in the 2016 film and 2024's Moana 2, stepped aside from the lead this time to open the door for another Pacific Islander, staying on as an executive producer. That choice is what gives the new duet its charge, a literal handoff between the actress who defined Moana and the one now carrying her forward.
Miranda's Disney résumé keeps expanding. He sat out Moana 2 while working on Mufasa: The Lion King, and in the interview he lit up recalling that assignment; writing for Mufasa and Scar, he said, put him in a songwriting "club" with the likes of Elton John, Tim Rice and Beyoncé.
Still, he kept circling back to the worlds he helped build from scratch. "I really am proud of the original stuff we've made, Moana and Encanto," he said. "It's been a joy to be a part of this world."
He also offered a fun origin story for one of Moana's biggest hits. When he wrote "You're Welcome," Maui didn't yet exist on the page. A lifelong wrestling fan, Miranda said he was picturing The Rock himself, eyebrow cocked, working a crowd, and asked what a wrestler could brag about and still be adored. "You're welcome for showing up today," he laughed.
As the interview wrapped, Laga'aia read the sign-off with a grin and a thick Australian accent that cracked up the room, inviting fans to see Moana in theaters July 10. After a decade, the ocean is calling again, this time in live action.
