Lin-Manuel Miranda Explains Why He Did Not Write the ‘Moana 2’ Soundtrack

While Moana 2 has been an undeniable success for Disney, the soundtrack may be the only part of the film that has not lived up to fan’s expectations.

Written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the first Moana soundtrack introduced numerous hits into the Disney canon, including “You’re Welcome” and “How Far I’ll Go.” Needless to say, Moana 2 had a high bar to clear.

Photo: Billboard

Interestingly, instead of turning back to Miranda to write the music for Moana 2, Disney tapped Emily Bear and Abigail Barlow for the job. While the composers are certainly big names in their own rights, the change seemed odd.

Why Didn’t Miranda Write the ‘Moana 2’ Soundtrack?

Miranda, meanwhile, wrote the soundtrack for Mufasa: The Lion King, Disney’s upcoming Lion King sequel. This led many to speculate that the composer had chosen the Pride Lands over the Polynesian.

Image Credit: Richard Shotwell/Invision, Associated Press

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, however, Miranda explained what really happened.

As it turns out, the Hamilton creator was given the script for Mufasa in early 2022, just after working on Encanto. At the time, Moana 2 was still being developed as a streaming series.

Photo: Disney

“It didn’t line up that way actually,” he said. “I got the script for ‘Mufasa’ when I had just finished ‘Encanto,’ and so I started working on that at the top of ’22. So, ‘Moana 2’ was already in process as a TV series with Emily [Bear] and Abigail [Barlow]. So then, when that decision got made to turn that into a movie, they were already cooking.”

Photo: People

It has long been documented that Disney originally intended to continue Moana’s story on Disney+ as a streaming series. By the sound of things, Bear and Barlow were already working on music for the show when Disney decided to pivot and create Moana 2.

Praise For Bear and Barlow

Despite not working on Moana 2, Miranda heard Bear and Barlow’s soundtrack during production. He was impressed.

“They’re so talented,” he said. “More than anything, what’s so thrilling is we hired Auli’i when she was 14 years old, and the stuff she’s singing in this new film is so just technically difficult, to see how far she’s come as a performer is really extraordinary.”

Photo: Billboard

While the Moana 2 soundtrack may not have made the splash that Disney was hoping for, Bear and Barlow believe that audiences will come around.

Photo: Disney

Either way, the film has been a historic success for Disney. Not bad for a film that started out life as a Disney+ series.