Lin-Manuel Miranda has been very, very busy. Final week, Mufasa: The Lion King was launched and is soaring at the box office, he’s circling an EGOT (once more) and he’s prepping for All In, his first ever play on Broadway.
“And it’s snowing like loopy right here in New York!” he says, tilting his display to the window over video name. “It’s all pretty, pretty instances.”
“Pretty instances” is true for the Pulitzer Prize-winner, at the moment on a packed press tour for writing the soundtrack to Barry Jenkins’ Mufasa: The Lion King, a prequel to the 2019 remake of The Lion King. The unique 1994 animated film featured songs written by Tim Rice and Sir Elton John, which appeared impossibly massive footwear for Miranda to fill.
“It was daunting, I used to be low-key daunted,” he says with a large grin, sans his trademark goatee.
Miranda had rather a lot occurring when he took on Mufasa in 2021. He was engaged on his first debut directorial characteristic Tick, Tick… Increase!, doing press for Netflix’s Vivo and Jon M. Chu’s movie adaptation of his breakout musical In The Heights, and had simply completed writing the Billboard #1 soundtrack for Disney’s animation hit Encanto.
For Miranda, nevertheless, saying sure to Barry Jenkins was a no brainer. “I attempt to say sure to issues I do know I’ll study from,” Miranda says. “Barry is considered one of our nice storytellers.” Miranda additionally knew that Jenkins can be an important collaborator. “I knew I wouldn’t be going, ‘Listed here are your songs, Barry, see you at opening evening!’”
The choice paid off. Miranda’s track “Inform Me It’s You” from the Mufasa soundtrack was shortlisted for an Oscar nomination earlier this month.
The soundtrack options seven songs written and co-produced by Miranda, who labored with Lebo M. and Dave Metzger on the music. One of many songs is a villain monitor for Mads Mikkelsen, which Miranda says he pushed for after discovering an outdated video of Mikkelsen singing on a range present in his twenties.
“I despatched it to Barry and I used to be like ‘Look!’” says Miranda. “I believe we’ve got a possibility right here.”
Fortunately it was director Jenkins’ job to persuade Mikkelsen to sing, however based on Miranda, “Once you signal on to The Lion King, you realize that anybody or anyone might be singing at any given time.”
Lebo M. and Metzger made the soundtrack for The Lion King stage adaptation as properly, and have been a dream to work with says Miranda. “A part of saying sure to the gig was that I wished to work with Lebo M.,” Miranda says. “He’s the musical pressure of all of those totally different wonderful artists who’ve labored on this world.”
Eagle-eyed followers identified similarities between the characters of Mufasa and Taka to that of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr from Hamilton, the musical that shot Miranda’s star into the stratosphere, however Miranda doesn’t see it. “I wasn’t considering of Hamilton in any respect,” he says. The one overlap he might see was that with each musicals, the one factor the viewers knew stepping into was that the 2 principal characters finally hated one another.
“What we find out about Mufasa and Scar from the unique film is tragic, so to return and see them head over heels in love with one another as adopted siblings may be very poignant,” stated Miranda.
Disney
Now, with two Emmys, 5 Grammys, and three Tony Awards, Miranda is an Oscar away from coveted EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) standing. However he appears unaffected by the prospect. He agrees that the EGOT membership is small and iconic, however provides that it’s “additionally made up. No person gave a sh*t about it till about 20 years in the past when there was a 30 Rock episode about it.” He factors out that the majority of his heroes by no means obtained an EGOT both. “Stephen Sondheim by no means received one,” he says.
Oscar or no, Miranda would reasonably give attention to the 12 months forward. He’s beginning 2025 off on stage once more with a flip in All In—a sequence of comedy brief tales written by SNL author Simon Wealthy, that includes a rotating ensemble solid that features John Mulaney, Jimmy Fallon, Richard Type, Aidy Bryant, and Miranda’s Hamilton co-stars Renée Elise Goldsberry and Andrew Rannells. It’s Miranda’s first time on stage since 2022’s Freestyle Love Supreme—the Thomas Kail-directed present Miranda did with the improvisational hip-hop comedy musical group he began with Anthony Veneziale again in 2004. It’s also his first non-musical Broadway outing ever. “Richard Type described it as ‘The Vagina Monologues however funnier’,” he grins, saying he’s excited to work with folks “a lot funnier than I’m”.
In additional long-term plans, discussions are underway to adapt the idea album Warriors—made with singer-songwriter and playwright Eisa Davis—right into a stage musical. The album, which was impressed by the 1979 motion movie The Warriors, got here out in October this 12 months, and was executive-produced by rapper Nas. It was Miranda’s first time constructing an album in a studio versus creating one for a musical, which was a lot helped by having Nas as a sounding board. “He fell into the venture very organically,” says Miranda. “I advised him I’m engaged on a Warriors adaptation and his eyes popped out of his head; he stated, ‘That’s my favourite film!’”
Though the album relies on the unique cult motion movie, Miranda has no plans to push for it to affix the practice of remakes that’s flooding Hollywood for the time being. “It’s the New York film,” he says. “For me, the rating is a love letter to the film, not a purpose to supplant it.”
The thrill round his current work is paying homage to Miranda’s 2020-21 period, when he had a number of initiatives releasing on the identical time. His identify was in all places, and he discovered himself being repeatedly roasted on TikTok for numerous causes that doubtless first started with ubiquity and overexposure and that included critiques of his lip-biting poses and the tone of his voice. He says of this time, “I used to be sick of myself too by the tip of 2021.”
In June 2021, the net discursive cited a scarcity of Afro Latinx illustration within the solid of In The Heights and Miranda issued an apology on X. Simply days later, Invoice Maher used his present Actual Time to support Miranda, calling these critics “bullies”.
Then, Miranda didn’t return for the Moana sequel, regardless of “How Far I’ll Go”, his unique track on that movie being Oscar-nominated and extensively adored by followers (Miranda collaborated on Moana‘s songs with Mark Mancina and Opetaia Foa’i). However Miranda explains his absence from Moana 2 was right down to scheduling conflicts and he’s “very proud” the Moana 2 songwriters Barlow & Bear (Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear) had the chance. They’re the primary feminine songwriting duo on a Disney movie. Miranda is, nevertheless, nonetheless engaged on frequent collaborator Kail’s live-action Moana adaptation, set to launch in 2026. “All is properly,” he says.
These initiatives however, Miranda says 2025 is the 12 months he’s “going to go take a pleasant well-deserved trip” to recharge. “I’m residing my life and going to jot down as a lot sh*t as I can earlier than I die,” he says.
