Lin-Manuel Miranda Teases New Original Songs for the Live-Action Remake of The Little Mermaid
Key Takeaways:
- According to Lin-Manuel Miranda, the new songs in Disney's live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid will not replace any classics.
- Miranda said that when Ariel, played by Halle Bailey, loses her voice and evolves into a human, she would sing a song in the film's second half.
- Bailey, 21, announced filming in September with an Instagram photo of herself relaxing on the ocean at dusk.
The new songs in Disney's live-action rendition of The Little Mermaid, according to Lin-Manuel Miranda, will not replace any of the classics.
During an interview on Variety's Awards Circuit podcast, the 42-year-old actor, who is working on the project alongside composer Alan Menken, discussed the songs featured in the next version.
"If Alan doesn't like anything, he'll tell you," Miranda said of Menken, 72. "He has a similar heart and wears his heart on his sleeve... He's also scoring it, along with the songs, as he did with the first."
Miranda stated Menken's eagerness makes him enthusiastic about watching the film, although he "won't see a rough edit for another month or a couple of months."
"We composed three or four new songs in addition to the ones you already know and love. "All of those are in," Miranda said of the iconic songs "Under the Sea" and "Part of Your World," according to Variety."
He went on to say, "There's no bigger Little Mermaid fan than me." "But we did find a handful of options for some other songs that I'm looking forward to seeing. To be honest, I'm as clueless as the rest of you."
Miranda said that Ariel, played by Halle Bailey, will sing a song in the film's second half when she loses her voice and transforms into a human.
"Even if Ariel's voice is missing for a spell, [director] Rob [Marshall] came up with a clever approach to hear from her. We composed some music for her time on the ground. "Miranda remarked, "We got to push into all of that musically, as she had a lot of firsts as a person with legs for the first time."
Miranda told the source that fans shouldn't anticipate anything new from Melissa McCarthy's Ursula. Still, he didn't rule out the possibility that his Hamilton co-star Daveed Diggs might rap as Sebastian.
Bailey – one-half of the musical sister combo Chloe x Halle — was revealed as Ariel's replacement by Disney in July 2019.
"It was evident after a lengthy search that Halle possessed that unique mix of passion, heart, freshness, innocence, and substance — plus a magnificent singing voice — all inherent traits necessary to perform this classic role," director Marshall, 61, said at the time.
Bailey, 21, shared a snapshot of herself resting on the water at sunset on Instagram in September, announcing the end of filming.
King Triton, Prince Eric, Jacob Tremblay, and Awkwafina feature Javier Bardem as King Triton, Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric, Jacob Tremblay as Flounder, as well as Awkwafina as Scuttle in the next picture.