Moana 2: Why Disney Pivoted From Streaming Series to a Theatrical Movie

Moana returns to the open sea this Thanksgiving when Disney releases what is easily one of its most highly-anticipated sequels into theaters around the world. Moana 2 will be sailing onto the big screen to continue the story that was started in 2017, with Auli’i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson reprising their lead roles. A sequel to Moana, one of the most popular Disney films of the 21st Century, seems like a no-brainer, but this movie wasn’t always in the cards. It was supposed to be a TV series for Disney+, but the folks at Disney realized what they had and wisely pivoted the Moana show into a theatrical sequel.

While speaking to Entertainment Weekly about its new Moana 2 cover story, Disney Animation Studios Chief Creative Officer Jennifer Lee opened up about the decision to pivot away from a streaming series that was already well into production.

“We constantly screen [our projects], even in drawing [phase] with sketches,” Lee said. “It was getting bigger and bigger and more epic, and we really wanted to see it on the big screen. It creatively evolved, and it felt like an organic thing.”

A similar sentiment was echoed by the filmmakers behind Moana 2, who stated that everyone working at the studio could feel the project becoming bigger and bigger as it went along.

“It became apparent very early on that this wanted to be on the big screen. It felt like a groundswell within the whole studio,” added director David G. Derrick Jr. Co-director Dana Ledoux Miller highlighted the other folks working on the movie by saying their team has “the best artists in the world” and asking, “Why are we not letting them shine on the biggest screen in the biggest way?”

In addition to the size and scope of the story lending itself to a feature film, Moana 2 going to theaters just made way too much sense. The original Moana has been Disney’s most popular movie on Disney+ for years now, why would the company take one of their biggest properties away from the box office and put it directly on streaming, knowing that it will still be a Disney+ hit after a theatrical run?

The biggest and best stories belong in movie theaters, and Disney spent a few years denying that truth, at least to some extent. Seeing Moana 2 make the shift from streaming into theaters shows how the company’s priorities have clearly been refocused.

“Supporting the theaters is something that we talked about,” Lee explained. “We love Disney+, but it will go there eventually. You could really put it anywhere, but these artists create stories that they want to see on the big screen and that we want the world to see on the big screen.”

“We haven’t done a ton of sequels at Disney animation,” she continued. “Our philosophy is always that the idea has to come from the filmmakers. You can’t invent a story that isn’t meant to be. You have to go from the heart out. If we do it the other way, we can’t build an authentic story. Story, to us, is always character first.”

As far as the creative aspect of things, a lot of work had to be done to change what was supposed to be a full series into a single feature-length movie. The core beats of the story remain intact, but many of the supporting cast had their roles altered to put a bigger focus on Moana as things were trimmed down.

“It was a matter of finding a way to truly make it Moana’s story,” Miller said. “In the series, there was a lot more room to play with some of the ensemble. [The shift was about] streamlining into all the things that we love most about Moana as our hero and our adventurer. We have all of that now and it pops so much more, especially with the scale that we get to live in on the big screen. Every element of the adventure that we were already building in the series is now 10 times bigger, 10 times more exciting.”

We don’t need to see the box office numbers to know that Disney made the right decision here. Theaters are still the bread and butter of the industry, even with the new world of streaming knocking on the door, and this sequel is going to have no trouble winning over both fans and the box office this fall.

Moana 2 hits theaters on November 27th.