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The new Moana trailer has sailed in, and with it we've finally got a first glimpse of major figures like Tomatoa, Te Fiti, and, of course, Dwayne Johnson's Maui. This live-action adaptation is arriving just 10 years after the original Disney animation, but with Hamilton director Thomas Kail – who knows a thing or two about musicals – at the helm, there's plenty of promise.
The original animation is beloved, and with Moana 2 going on to make over a billion dollars at the box office in 2024, there's every chance this could be one of the biggest upcoming movies of the year. But for now, check out our exclusive interview with Thomas Kail below. Oh, and you're welcome. (Note: this interview has been edited for length and clarity).
GamesRadar+: We finally see Dwayne Johnson's Maui in this new trailer. What were the challenges of translating such a distinctive character into live action?
Thomas Kail: In a way, it's a microcosm for the whole experience: how do you take something that existed that you want to honor? The way that Maui is constructed and shaped in that first film feels perfect for that world. But if Dwayne's playing [Maui], you want Dwayne, so how do we make sure that we're really featuring that? Maui looks more like Dwayne than in [the] 2016 [movie], but I think that the spirit is the same. There's a way that we connect to Maui, in this film, where you feel his history in a way that Dwayne really was interested in uncovering. And he's got a lot of new jokes!
"You're Welcome" is iconic. Will Maui be introduced the same way in this film?
When he arrives, we try to give him the entrance of the demigod that he is. And again, how do you demonstrate someone who can do all of these things that, in animation, you buy into it because of the spirit of animation and the elasticity of how things can move there. So we wanted to make sure that our film, which is really grounded in the island of Motunui, could have those moments of elevation. "You're Welcome" is an incredible opportunity for that, because that number has the build that it does and has the structure that it does, it felt like a way to introduce Maui to our audience and let them experience all of the wonderfulness, and his trickster qualities as well. So, those things we really tried to embrace.
How much R&D went into Dwayne's wig?
It's funny, in thinking and talking about it, I was so used to seeing Dwayne on set that I forgot that he didn't have hair! But we had a lot of fun. And it was so rewarding to watch Dwayne and Catherine [Laga'aia, Moana], because their back and forth and repartee is really the heartbeat of the film. It's about these two people who don't think they need each other, who have to go across the world and do the impossible. And, also, Catherine was just completely unintimidated and right there dishing it back. So that made for some good crackle between the two of them.
Why did it make sense to adapt Moana into live action a decade after the release of the original animated movie?
I think there are lots of reasons. One of the core reasons was the opportunity to preserve and try to take the culture of the Pacific Islands and put it in a photo-real world. The original Moana and Moana 2 communicated so much about the culture to so many millions of people. And with live action, hopefully you'll get all the people that watch the animated film, and also some folks that might say, 'Animation is not for me, but I'll step into this experience.' That was something we thought about a lot – how do we use that opportunity? The sense of danger when you see Catherine, this teenager, in the middle of this storm, it feels different when it's a person inhabiting that. And so I think the sense of adventure and danger feel really heightened in that regard. And none of that takes away from the fun or the entertainment of it, but I think that gives it a beautiful counterbalance to all of the joy that we're trying to deliver.
How faithful to the original story is your film? Are you taking the opportunity to deviate at all in terms of the story you're telling?
The story is the story of 2016, for sure, because it certainly didn't seem like it was broken to us. The way that the characters move through that larger arc feels like it's certainly trusting of that. You know, there's new dialog, there's stuff that we're expressing that wasn't expressed, there's opportunities in comedy that are completely new to our film. And so we tried to embrace those whenever it felt like it was still trusting the path forward, but we didn't go into it with fear. We knew that the foundation was so strong that it could withstand and we could find new moments, or find a different way to approach a scene, even if it's the same setting. So I'm excited for people to experience that.
Lin-Manuel Miranda is back for your movie. Are there going to be new songs?
Of the things that I can and can't say, that is one of them. But being back with my pal… you know, Lin and I met in May of 2002, so to be sitting on set with him, in the middle of this village of Motunui, 23 years later, it was very meaningful for me. We've continued to collaborate over these last almost 25 years. We've got new stuff we're doing now. And Moana was something that he wrote while we were doing Hamilton. So when I was trying to get Hamilton done, I was like [incredulously]: 'What are you doing? Stop doing that!' Little did I know that it would serve me so well. So it felt really nice to be able to meet each other on this one, having been just an admirer and a fan who had nothing to do with the first one, but to be back together, watching these new interpretations of the songs. And, certainly, the way that we tried to capture the songs was our version of them. The way that our cast interprets the songs is completely recognizable if you know the story and the score, but it's their own. And we tried to do the same thing with how we were photographing and capturing those numbers.
We get a quick glimpse of characters like Tamatoa and Te Fiti in the new trailer. Did any one character pose a particular challenge in translating them to live action?
It's like the question about Maui; Tamatoa, you could take a still frame of him, put it anywhere in the world, and everyone's like: "Oh, Tamatoa!" There is a way that Tamatoa moves through space and time that feels deeply inherent to animation. So how do we show the mass and the size and have that sort of devilish menace? Getting a chance to have Jermaine [Clement] come back and do the crab again was a particular joy for me. It was the same thing with our Te Fiti, if it were to live in a world where people are moving through space and time the way that we do, and then there are also demigods and a singing, dancing crab, and a lava monster. All those things were enormous challenges. Bill Westenhoffer and the VFX team are absolute best-in-class, and so that's been a really wonderful collaboration that continues. That's what we're always after, is trying to do something that can deliver the majesty and the magic of this film.
Moana releases on July 10. Keep up to date with everything else on the way from Disney with our guide to all the upcoming Disney movies.
