Lin-Manuel Miranda, who received an Oscar nomination for the song “How Far I’ll Go” from Moana, discussed why he didn’t return to write songs for Moana 2. The award-winning artist talked with The Hollywood Reporter before the release of Mufasa: The Lion King and stated there was no choosing between Mufasa and Moana 2.

“It didn’t line up that way actually,” he said. “I got the script for Mufasa when I had just finished Encanto, and so I started working on that at the top of ’22. So, Moana 2 was already in process as a TV series with Emily [Bear] and Abigail [Barlow]. So then, when that decision got made to turn that into a movie, they were already cooking.”

 Miranda still got a chance to hear the music created by Bear and Barlow. “They’re so talented,” he said. “… What’s so thrilling is we hired Auli’i when she was 14 years old, and the stuff she’s singing in this new film is so just technically difficult, to see how far she’s come as a performer is really extraordinary.”

Miranda wrote the music for Moana, which featured the song “How Far I’ll Go”. The song was nominated for Best Original Song at the Oscars and Golden Globes and won Best Song Written for Visual Media at the Grammys.

He explained that when creating the Mufasa soundtrack when it comes to telling Mufasa and Scar’s story, it goes in the opposite direction from what is known about them in The Lion King. He also noted that the most fun part of working on the music for the prequel was leaning into the part audiences don’t know: “This is a story of two brothers who adore each other, and how do we get from that to the way we met Mufasa and Scar in the original?”

Miranda was also overjoyed to work with director Barry Jenkins, best known for his Grammy-winning film Moonlight. He called Jenkins “one of our great filmmakers,” and that he “was honored he asked me.”

Miranda and Jenkins also recalled their memories of the late James Earl Jones, who voiced Mufasa in the original animated film and live-action The Lion King. (The prequel opens with a tribute to him.)

“Being someone Black in Hollywood, you have these mentors, these people you look up to,” Jenkins said “… when he did pass, it was very clear. I grew up without a father figure. This character, in some ways, became a father figure, so it felt very appropriate to find a way to honor him.”

“One of my most memorable days was when I first performed a song from Hamilton at the White House in 2008,” Miranda shared. “He was performing Othello’s big monologue to the Senate, and so my day started with splitting a van with James Earl Jones to the White House.”