Moana 2had an unusual path to the big screen. The upcoming movie is a sequel to Disney’s 2016 hit, which was nominated for two Oscars and grossed $687.2 million at the global box office against a budget of roughly $150 million. The new movie features returning voice actors Auliʻi Cravalho as Moana, the daughter of a village chief, and Dwayne Johnson as Maui, a self-centered demigod. Although the songs for the original animated movie musical were co-written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, his collaborators Mark Mancina and Opetaia Foaʻi were joined by Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear for the new outing.
TheupcomingMoana 2is currently on track to be a major box office success. In fact,it has the highest first-day ticket pre-sales broke of any 2024 animated movie, outpacing evenThe Wild Robot, which is slowly and steadily climbing toward the $300 million milestone worldwide, and the Pixar sequelInside Out 2, which became the highest-grossing animated movie of all time earlier in the year. However, in spite of this promising early performance, the upcoming Disney project being a theatrical release was very far from the original plan.
Maui’s Backstory, Powers, & Real-Life Inspiration In Moana Explained
Maui’s story, established by 2016’s Moana, continues in Moana 2, building on the character’s existing history, powers, and real-world inspiration.
Moana 2 Was Originally Developed As A Show After Disney+ Launched
It Was Going To Be A Longform Limited Series
The sequel to one of the newest classics in theDisney animated moviecanon was originally announced in December 2020 in an entirely different form. During a Disney Investor Day meeting that took place a year after the launch of the company’s proprietary streaming service Disney+, Jennifer Lee, the chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios, first revealed thatMoana 2was in development as a limited television series rather than a movie. At the time, its working title wasMoana: The Seriesand it was being developed alongside the live-actionMoanamovie remake that is still in progress.
Dwayne Johnson is set to reprise his original role as Maui in the 2026 live-actionMoana, though the title character will be played by Catherine Lagaʻaia rather than Auliʻi Cravalho.
Several key creatives were part of the original announcementof the series. This includes producer Osnat Shurer, who worked on the original movie as well as Disney’s 2021 animated featureRaya and the Last Dragon. David Derrick Jr., who was a storyboard artist on the 2016 movie, was announced as the director and writer, stepping in for original directing duo John Musker and Ron Clements (whose previous collaborations includeThe Little Mermaid,Aladdin, andHercules) and screenwriter Jared Bush (Zootopia,Encanto). The intention was that the show would be a musical comedy bringing the iconic characters to the small screen.
Moana’s Disney+ Show Was Created When Disney Was Heavily Emphasizing Streaming
A Lot Of Iconic IP Was Adapted For The Platform
The move to bringMoanato the small screen makes sense in the broader context of how Disney has handled some of their most iconic IP. There is a longstanding precedent for this announcement, asquite a few movies from the Disney animated canon have been adapted to television seriesin the past, includingThe Little Mermaid(1992-1994),Aladdin(1994-1995),Hercules(1998-1999). Various other spinoffs have made it to the air as well, includingThe Lion King’s Timon & Pumbaa(1995-1999) andBuzz Lightyear of Star Command(2000-2001), the latter of which was part of the Pixar franchiseToy Story.
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This approach became even more apparent during the early days of Disney+, when Disney - and CEO Bob Chapek in particular - wereintent on bringing their most popular IP to the platformas they attempted to build a robust streaming empire. This includes a wide range of series in the MCU and theStar Warsfranchiseduring the streaming service’s first years and beyond. In 2019 and 2020, other Disney+ IP projects includedHigh School Musical: The Musical: The Series, theToy Storyshort film seriesForky Asks a Question,Phineas and Ferb the Movie, andLady and the Tramp.
Disney Changed Moana’s Show Into A Movie After Leadership Changes & Early Footage
Disney+ Is No Longer The First Priority
During pre-production,Disney+’s severe financial losses forced the company to shift its focus away from streamingin conjunction with a change in leadership as Bob Iger returned as CEO after Chapek was let go after two years in the wake of his controversial response to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill. In a move that was likely the best choice for the project given strongMoana 2box officeprojections, Iger announced that the project had become a movie during a Disney earnings call in February 2024. Below, read Iger’s statement on the decision, which was made after seeing early footage:
We were impressed with what we saw, and we knew it deserved a theatrical release. The original Moana film from 2016 recently crossed 1 billion hours streamed on Disney+ and was the most-streamed movie of 2023 on any platform in the U.S.
In the wake of the announcement that the project was being converted into a movie, Johnson and Cravalho’s participation was officially announced. This wasaccompanied by some major shifts behind the scenes, including Osnat Shurer departing the project and Christina Chen and Yvett Merino stepping in as producers. Additionally, while David Derrick Jr. is still involved in the movie, the screenplay is now by Dana Ledoux Miller (The Newsroom,Narcos), working with the returning Jared Bush. Miller also boarded the project as a co-director along with Jason Hand (a story artist onBig Hero 6andZootopia).
How The Moana Show Changed To Make Moana 2 A Feature Film
The Focus Of The Story Shifted
Later in 2024,Screen Rantsat down withMoana 2’s directors to discuss how the decision to make it a movie affected the creative process. They revealed that Moana travels with an expanded crew in her new adventure and that this new dynamic was one of the most important aspects that fueled the transition. Becausethe show had more space in which to explore the characters, there was already a great deal of depth to the figures surrounding the lead.
Another facet of the company’s deprioritization of streaming is the upcoming big screen outingThe Mandalorian & Grogu, which is a movie follow-up to the Disney+Star WarsseriesThe Mandalorian.
Whilethe filmmakers had to diminish that ensemble approach somewhatin order to fit feature length, the complexity of the characters still shone through, making it easy for them to approach the supporting cast through the main character’s lens rather than the more spread-out approach of a series. While the new characters have not been fully fleshed out yet in theMoana 2trailer, it seems that they will play a key part in the narrative of the movie nevertheless.
Moana 2
Cast
Moana 2 is the sequel to the 2016 animated film Moana. Directed by David G. Derrick Jr., Jason Hand, and Dana Ledoux Miller, the film continues the journey of Moana as she embarks on new adventures, exploring the vast Pacific Ocean while encountering new characters and challenges along the way.
