‘Moana 2’ Directors Discuss Expanding Identity, Raised Stakes And Original ‘Darker’ Mid-Credit Scene

deadline.com:

Following up the arrival of Wicked Part One and Gladiator II at the box office right before Thanksgiving is a feat in and of itself, but following a beloved first feature installment gave Moana 2 even more of a wave to surmount.

Directors Dana Ledoux Miller, Jason Hand and David G. Derrick Jr. navigated these high expectations as well as the transformation of the sequel film into a movie from what was originally supposed to be a television series.

In the below interview, the three directors unpack the process of changing medium, how they wanted to expand on Moana’s story and new faces and layers to the both Moana (voiced by Auli’I Cravalho) and Maui (Dwayne Johnson). DEADLINE: My first question for all three of you is, could you talk about, I guess, instead of maybe expanding, you had to narrow down the plot from the TV show what that process was like? DANA LEDOUX MILLER: We did have to streamline in a way.

When it was the series, there was a little more emphasis on the ensemble, but we realized, in making it a feature, that this really has to be Moana’s story, and, not that we were diminishing the crew, but that we were really making sure that they were pushing up against Moana and that everything was pushing Moana forward.