A new rumor claims that the Moana 2 production is in “chaos” following Bob Iger announcing the in-development Moana spin-off series was being turned into a theatrical release with just six months before its release date.
A scene from Moana 2 (2024), Walt Disney Animation Studios
Walt Disney Studios CEO Bob Iger announced Moana 2 was in development at the beginning of February stating via a press release, “Moana remains an incredibly popular franchise. And we can’t wait to give you more of Moana and Maui when Moana 2 comes to theaters this November.”
On top of the announcement, the company released a brief teaser.
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Iger would later explain that the film would be taking the previously announced Moana TV series for Disney+ and turning it into a feature film.
He said during the company’s Q1 FY 24 earnings call, “As I mentioned at the top of the call, this November, we’ll release a feature‐length animated sequel to Moana. This was originally developed as a series, but we were impressed with what we saw, and we knew it deserved a theatrical release.”
Iger added, “The original Moana film from 2016 recently crossed 1 billion hours streamed on Disney+ and was the most streamed movie of 2023 on any platform in the U.S. Along with the live‐action version of the original film that’s currently in development, Moana remains an incredibly popular franchise, and we can’t wait to give you more of Moana and Maui when Moana 2 comes to theaters this November.”
Bob Iger | 2019 Disney Legends Awards Ceremony | D23 EXPO 2019. Photo Credit: nagi usano from Tokyo, Japan, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
It is speculated that the reason for moving the production from a Disney+ series to a theatrical release is an attempt to try and make Disney+ have a profitable quarter by shifting costs away from it.
Analyst and scooper WDW Pro explained in a recent video where he also shared the information his source provided him regarding the chaos on Moana 2.
WDW Pro said, “Bob Iger needs it to not be a TV show because that means Disney+ has to pay for it. Then it’s going to make it almost impossible for them to show that Disney+ is profitable by the end of the year because they have to get expenses down because subscribers are down. So they’ve got to eliminate any possible cost they can.”
“They’ve changed [Moana 2] into a box office movie, now, that means it comes out of a different ledger, ” he elaborated.
As for the the film’s production, WDW Pro also shared, “This is a source who claims to be close to the production of Moana 2. And please note again, Encanto, a musical just like other Disney musicals, five years of development to get it right. Moana 2 six months.”
He then said, “According to the source, getting the movie out by November in a worthy state is feared by those working on it to be impossible. And that’s by people who are working on it both in Vancouver and Los Angeles.”
Furthermore, he shared, “They may drop the soundtrack as a result to three songs instead of the normal six to seven you would have expected for a Disney musical.”
A scene from Moana 2 (2024), Walt Disney Animation Studios
Still later in the video he shared more information his source provided him, specifically about the film’s plot, “According to the source, Moana is going to be learning how to be a ruler of people instead of being on her own. So she’s going to learn how to lead a ragtag group of adventurers semi-similar to Lightyear. Maui is going to grow into learning how to receive as well as to give.”
He continued, “According to the source, there’s really nothing woke in this outside of female empowerment.”
Te Fiti and Moana in Moana (2016), Walt Disney Studios
Next, he specifically talked about the crunch and chaos the production is under, “Source says that in order to get animations done in this six months window … in order to get the animations done in this constrained time frame there is no time to iterate on script and storyboards. There’s barely any time for storyboards period.
“The process for getting this ready for theaters is described as ‘chaos,'” he said.
Moana in Moana (2016), Walt Disney Studios
Not only is the production allegedly in chaos, but the film’s production is apparently ballooning as well. WDW Pro said, “This source that we’re talking to says there’s a fear that this is going to balloon up to $300 million production.”
He added, “This source says $300 million is now in question because they’re going to have to outsource this beyond Vancouver, apparently, to animation studios all over the world. And they’re going to have pay a very pretty penny for crunch time.”
Moana in Moana (2016), Walt Disney Studios
What do you make of this rumor regarding Moana 2?
