Dwayne Johnson Image Credit: APLegendary movie star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has made some interesting new comments.
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Over the years, The Walt Disney Company has provided us with some truly remarkable entertainment. Whether you’re visiting the Walt Disney World or Disneyland Resorts or sitting at home watching Peter Pan (1953) on Disney+, fans of Disney are able to enjoy so many incredibly magical experiences.
Speaking of movies, The Walt Disney Company has released an impressive number of films, most of which have become global phenomenons. Recent hits like Disney Pixar’s Elemental (2023) and Turning Red (2022) will undoubtedly become fan favorites and with new additions to already-established franchises on the way like Toy Story 5, the magic truly never stops.
However, one film really blew things out of the water.
Walt Disney Studios released Moana in 2016 to worldwide critical and financial success. The animated feature film brought in nearly $700 million at the box office, making it one of The Walt Disney Company’s biggest hits in a while. The film featured catchy music, incredibly animating, and fantastic voiceover work provided by Auli’i Cravalho, Alan Tudyk, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and Jemaine Clement. Disney’s Moana spawned new iconic faces for the company in the form of Maui, Played by Dwayne Johnson, and Moana, played by Auli’i Cravalho.
Disney has made it very clear it sees Moana as one of its core franchises now, announcing several exciting projects revolving around the film.
Guests visiting the Walt Disney World Resort have access to an entire walkthrough attraction based on Disney’s Moana franchise at EPCOT. Guests also have the opportunity to meet Moana herself.
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Earlier in 2023, Disney announced that it had plans to create a live-action retelling of Moana. This trend of turning classic animated films into live-action versions is nothing new for The Walt Disney Company, with the company recreating iconic films like Cinderella (1950), The Little Mermaid (2023), and The Lion King (2019). However, many fans were quick to point out just how fast Disney was planning on recreating the world of the first Moana, with only about seven years between the film’s release and this announcement. This was by far the fastest a live-action remake had ever been announced, with the dust not even settling on the original Moana.
Disney made this announcement during its annual shareholder’s meeting, with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson presenting the news. Alongside his daughters on a beautiful beach in Hawaii, Johnson shared how important Moana was to him and hinted at involvement with the upcoming film. While we don’t know a lot of details regarding the film itself, we do know that the voice of Moana Auli‘i Cravalho will serve as an executive producer, and Moana screenplay writer Jared Bush is involved in the film.
We were not sure if Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson would be reprising his role as Maui, and with that being one of the more infamous characters in the movie, we weren’t sure if anyone would be able to replace him. However, recent reports confirm that Johnson has sealed his fate regarding the Maui character.
The Rock confirms that he will be playing Maui in the ‘MOANA’ live-action remake.
(Via: @FallonTonight) pic.twitter.com/gdc1B486Tt
— The Hollywood Handle (@HollywoodHandle) November 14, 2023
We’re incredibly excited to see how this live-action retelling of Disney’s Moana turns out. There is no release date set for the film at this moment, so make sure you stay tuned here at Inside the Magic for all future details!
Dwayne Johnson’s career began in the world of professional wrestling, where he gained fame in the late 1990s as a WWE superstar. Since then, Dwayne Johnson has become one of the world’s biggest movie stars, with the wrestler-turned-actor starring in films ranging from DC’s Black Adam (2022) to Disney’s Jungle Cruise (2021).
Are you excited about Disney’s live-action Moana?