“Hamilton” Creator Lin-Manuel Miranda Talks “Mary Poppins Returns,” and Writing Moana Songs for The Rock

ABC/Heidi Gutman(NEW YORK) — Lin-Manuel Miranda is everywhere these days. The Hamilton composer hosted Saturday Night Live last weekend and the premiere of the much-awaited Hamilton documentary airs on PBS next week.

The Tony winner is also preparing for the release of Moana, the Disney animated movie whose music he composed, and packing for London, where he will spend the next year filming Mary Poppins Returns.

Miranda said Thursday’s Good Morning America that after the show he would be “packing boxes” for London. He’ll play in Mary Poppins Returns, a role similar to the one made famous by Dick Van Dyke in the original Mary Poppins movie, but with a twist.

“This takes place about 20 years after the original Mary Poppins film took place but I get to be around for the adventures with Mary and the kids and sing and dance and do all the fun things,” said Miranda, who will co-star with Meryl Streep and Emily Blunt in the Rob Marshall-directed film.  

For Moana, Miranda had to figure out how to give voice to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who voices Maui, the great ocean demigod who helps fearless Moana as she embarks on an epic adventure to discover what is beyond the confines of her island.

“I didn’t know if he could sing so I went on YouTube to sort of find any examples of The Rock singing and what I found was this super cut when he was a bad guy wrestler,” Miranda said, to laughs. 

“The fun thing about writing for The Rock is he’s so charming you can give him Gaston-level arrogant lyrics and it’s still charming,” he said, referring to the villain in Beauty and the Beast.

Moana opens November 23 from Disney, the parent company of ABC News.

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