Lin-Manuel Miranda Still Wants the Hamilton Movie to Play in Theaters Someday

The now-iconic production of Hamilton is making its way to living rooms around the country in just a couple of weeks, as the Disney+ streaming service is preparing to debut a one-of-a-kind recording of the show’s original cast. Fans are anxiously-awaiting the chance to see the likes of Lin-Manuel Miranda, Leslie Odom Jr., Daveed Diggs, Phillipa Soo, and the rest of the beloved cast take the stage on their TVs, performing the most popular show in the entire world. While it’s exciting to see Hamilton on Disney+, the film was actually supposed to debut in theaters next year, but plans changed with the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic.

While speaking with Variety, Hamilton creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda explained that he still hopes to see this version of the show play in movie theaters one day, even though streaming was the right call for our current time and place.

“We hope the possibility still exists and that once movie theaters are open again, there’s a world in which this plays in movie theaters,” said Miranda. “But you also have to acknowledge the timeline of the reality you live in. The timeline we live in, there’s no live theater anywhere. I’m just thrilled that we have this giant joyous reminder of how special live theater is in the form of this Hamilton movie.”

While this film is a feature-length presentation of Hamilton, and was supposed to play in theaters around the world, it isn’t exactly a movie in the way that some may be expecting. It’s a production of the stage show, not a traditional cinematic retelling of the story. As popular as Hamilton is, there will likely be an actual movie version sometime in the future, but Miranda isn’t sure exactly what that will look like.

“I don’t love a lot of movie musicals based on shows because it’s hard to stick the landing,” he explained. “I’m very proud of Jon Chu’s version of In the Heights. It is a different animal than the stage production. As long as I think of those as different things, it’s exciting. I don’t know what a cinematic version of Hamilton looks like. If I had, I’d have written it as a movie.”

Are you looking forward to seeing Hamilton on Disney+ next month? Let us know in the comments!

Hamilton arrives on Disney+ on July 3rd.