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.
