Thomas Kail, the “Hamilton” director making his feature film debut with Disney’s live-action “Moana,” says he never felt pressure from the studio to deviate from the beloved 2016 animated original — even as reviews and early ticket sales suggest audiences wanted something different.
The remake, which opened Friday in more than 3,875 North American theaters, is tracking toward a domestic weekend in the $40 million range, according to industry estimates — a steep drop from the $80 million-plus some trackers projected weeks earlier and roughly a quarter of what “Moana 2” pulled in during its Thanksgiving 2024 debut. Critics have been unkind, with the film sitting in the mid-30s percent range on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the weakest-reviewed entry in the franchise.
Kail, who spent two decades in theater directing “In the Heights” and “Hamilton” with longtime collaborator Lin-Manuel Miranda, said he was first approached about “Moana” in late 2022 and met star and producer Dwayne Johnson the following March. Production ran from July through November 2024, split between Georgia and Hawaii.
The director pushed back on the idea that he simply reproduced the original shot for shot, noting that his team reordered scenes and added new material throughout. “If you make a movie like this and it doesn’t follow the story, then it’s not ‘Moana,’ and it shouldn’t be called ‘Moana,'” he said, adding that original screenwriter Jared Bush returned to co-write the new script.
Johnson reprises his role as the demigod Maui in a physical suit rather than through digital effects, a choice Kail said was necessary because the character moves between wet and dry environments throughout filming. The suit drew attention for omitting a detail present in earlier depictions of the character; Kail declined to elaborate beyond confirming the anatomical choice was intentional. He also dismissed earlier reports that Disney explored using an artificial-intelligence-generated version of Johnson as a stand-in for Maui during filming, saying he didn’t know what those reports referred to.
Kail said nearly 2,944 people worked on the production, a figure he called personally meaningful after a career built largely around small-scale theater. He has no immediate plans to direct another film, focusing instead on television projects and a stage adaptation of “The Warriors” with Miranda set to begin previews next spring.
