Dwayne Johnson, Catherine Lagaʻaia, and Thomas Kail on Reimagining Moana for Live Action

Disney's live-action Moana opens exclusively in theaters July 10, and the people who made it are explaining how it came together. Producer and Maui star Dwayne Johnson, first-time lead Catherine Lagaʻaia, and director Thomas Kail talk through the worldwide casting search, an ensemble of more than 200 Pacific Islander actors, and "Along the Way," the new Lin-Manuel Miranda duet that links both Moanas.

Disney's live-action Moana opens exclusively in theaters on Friday, July 10, ten years after the animated original turned "How Far I'll Go" into a household anthem. Ahead of the release, The Walt Disney Company shared a conversation with producer and Maui star Dwayne Johnson, first-time film lead Catherine Lagaʻaia, and director Thomas Kail about the worldwide casting search, the film's Pacific Islander ensemble, and the one new song they decided the story needed.

A worldwide search for Moana

Casting the title role took a search as sweeping as the story itself. After casting directors Bernard Telsey and Tiffany Little Canfield led a worldwide hunt, a then 17-year-old newcomer from Sydney, Australia won over Johnson and Kail: Catherine Lagaʻaia, who makes her feature debut as the wayfinder of Motunui.

"There were thousands of really talented young women who auditioned, but when I saw her tape, I sat up straight in my chair," Kail recalled. "There's nothing like the medium of film to introduce the world to someone, and Catherine has a light inside her; she doesn't need us to light her. I said to her, 'Katie, if you can go from high school to doing this movie, talk about high-altitude training! You can literally do anything after this.'"

Lagaʻaia, who sought advice from executive producer Auliʻi Cravalho, the voice of Moana in the animated Moana and Moana 2, said stepping into the role meant charting her own course. "I had to make it my own," she said. "You can't emulate somebody else."

More than 200 actors from the Pacific

The ensemble includes more than 200 actors from across the Pacific Islands, a commitment the filmmakers say was baked in from the start. Johnson, who produces the film and reprises the trickster demigod Maui, traced it back to his first meeting with Kail in 2023.

"I was excited about the shot, the opportunity we had, because this is a beloved universal franchise by now," Johnson explained. "Now, you have a shot to do something special." He added that Kail's pitch sealed it: "A lot of times what we deliver is written in the sand, but it will get washed away. We're going to etch it in stone, where it never goes away and it's forever. And I love that. I'm that kind of guy who gets fired up when I hear that."

Johnson will also be inducted as an official Disney Legend during D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event in August, alongside songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda.

For Lagaʻaia, the film's approach to representation is personal. "The first time I got to see her onscreen, I thought it was really funny because I didn't really think she looked like me; I thought she looked like my sister," she said of the 2016 animated heroine. "I feel like that's such a universal experience with Moana. Even if she doesn't look like you, she reminds you of someone. And that's because she is such an accurate and true representation of the Pacific Islands and of Polynesia."

Why "Along the Way" is the only new song

Directing Moana reunited Kail with his longtime Hamilton and In the Heights collaborator Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote the original film's songs with Opetaia Foaʻi and Mark Mancina and produces this one. Rather than rework the soundtrack, the pair scrutinized the film and concluded every musical moment it needed was already there. That left one open door: the end credits.

"In the original Moana, it was a different version of songs we had just heard, so we thought, 'What if we did something here that allowed a duet that we have never heard, like Maui and Moana singing together?'" Kail said. "Then we thought, 'If we're in the end credits and we're outside of the body of the movie, what if it's both of our Moanas and the one person who links them, Maui?' You could have the bridging of Auliʻi, now the ancestor who was originally Moana, leading the way and passing a torch to Katie."

The result is "Along the Way," a new duet performed by Lagaʻaia, Johnson, and Cravalho.

Hearing the demo was a surreal moment for Lagaʻaia, and not only because of what the song represents. "The people who did the demo were Lin, Phillipa Soo, and Jasmine Cephas Jones from Hamilton," she said. "She sang my part in the demo. Honestly, I was like, 'We don't even need me on it! This is perfect to me.' Getting to hear the Schuyler sisters sing a song for me was incredible. The other material has been done before, and it's been honored in such a beautiful way with our film. But it's great to have something new that I can plant my flag on and say, 'This is mine.'"

The music is the point

Kail argues the songs are the reason the story has stayed alive for a decade. "There's a reason why Disney has made so many movies that resonate 50 years later: because of the score, because of the songs," he said. "Even if you've only seen Moana 12 times, you've definitely heard 'How Far I'll Go' 673 times. These are songs that have been in our consciousness daily. And the music, which connects us to the emotion of who we were and where we were, is what makes the impact so present and so continuous."

What this means for fans

A live-action Moana was always going to face a high bar with fans, and Disney's answer is continuity where it counts: Johnson back as Maui, Cravalho producing and singing on the new track, Miranda writing again, and a cast drawn from the communities the story depicts. The one new song is a literal passing of the torch between two Moanas. Fans can judge the results when Moana opens exclusively in theaters on July 10.