Lin-Manuel Miranda Working On New Disney Animated Musical

Last week brought news of a rumored new project at Walt Disney Animation Studios that would see the return of Lin-Manuel Miranda to the Disney family. The Tony Award winning composer and actor has confirmed the news himself in an appearance on Good Morning America earlier today. When asked about what he’s working on, Miranda said: “The other thing I’m working on is I’m actually writing a new animated musical with Disney Animation. I’m collaborating with the Zootopia guys and Jared bush who wrote Moana with me. It’s set in Colombia, in Latin America. And that’s all I can say before Bob Iger just shows up in room.”

Miranda’s revelation confirmed that Zootopia co-directors Byron Howard and Jared Bush will direct the film, as originally reported last week. Where Miranda’s confirmation differed on the project was its setting, it had initially been reported that the film took place in Brazil but as Miranda said above, it will be set in Colombia instead.

Further details were not disclosed but it was previously reported by Disney Insider that the film will be titled Encanto, which translates as “charm” from Spanish. The film reportedly centers on a young girl and her family in Brazil, who all have magical powers, sadly, the young girl has none.

This new film marks the latest collaboration between Miranda and Walt Disney Studios, having previously written for Moana and Mary Poppins Returns, which he also co-starred in. Their next project together will be the feature presentation of Hamilton, with their filmed version of the smash-hit musical arriving on the Disney+ streaming service next week. This presentation had originally been scheduled to arrive in theaters later next year but the timetable and method of release was moved ahead by Disney after the coronavirus pandemic shut down theaters.

When Hamilton does arrive on Disney+ it will be without some of its “F-bombs” as Disney has confirmed the film received a PG-13 rating and has edited out two uses of the word in the musical’s lyrics. A spokesperson from Disney confirmed this ComicBook.com, saying, “In order to share HAMILTON with the broadest audience possible, two non-material edits were made to the film in collaboration with the show’s creators to achieve a PG-13 rating.”

Fortunately, other than those two words, it doesn’t look like anything about the content of Hamilton will be changing for its Disney+ debut next month.