Director Thomas Kail talks working with Cravalho, her contributions, and the new song with two Moanas.

How original Moana Auli’i Cravalho got involved in the live-action remake — and why she doesn’t cameo

Director Thomas Kail talks working with Cravalho, her contributions, and the new song with two Moanas.

By Nick Romano

Nick Romano

Nick Romano is a senior editor at ** with 15 years of journalism experience covering entertainment. His work previously appeared in Vanity Fair, Vulture, IGN, and more.

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July 8, 2026 3:47 p.m. ET

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The two Moanas: Auli’i Cravalho and Catherine Laga’aia. Credit:

Joe Maher/Getty; Disney

- Auli’i Cravalho, the original Moana, is an executive producer on the live-action film and features on a new song.

- Director Thomas Kail explains why Cravalho didn’t cameo in the film and instead remained behind the scenes.

- “She really wanted this to be Catherine’s,” Kail says, referring to new star Catherine Laga’aia.

It’s a no-brainer to have Auli’i Cravalho, the original voice of Moana in the animated movies, involved in your live-action remake of the material. For filmmaker Thomas Kail, it was essential.

“There was never a time when we didn’t imagine it happening,” the director for stage (*In the Heights*, *Hamilton*) and screen (*Fosse/Verdon*, *Grease Live!*) tells **. “That was our hope. I was so aware, as we were stepping into this, there are two people who played Moana. One’s Auliʻi and one’s Catherine” — Catherine Laga’aia, who plays the role in the live-action version (out this weekend). “That’s it in the whole world. What a perspective to offer, what a point of view that she carries.”

Cravalho doesn’t appear in the live-action movie and doesn’t provide any kind of voice role, but she is involved behind the scenes as an executive producer. She also duets with Laga’aia on a new track, “Along the Way,” composed by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the man behind the original *Moana* music. The song plays over the end credits.

Kail first met Cravalho at the 2017 Oscars, “which is remembered for different things,” he jokes, alluding to the *La La Land*/*Moonlight* Best Picture snafu. The actress performed the Oscar-nominated song “How Far I’ll Go” from the animated feature, and Kail “went out to help a little bit with the number.”

Catherine Laga’aia and Auli’i Cravalho at the ‘Moana’ world premiere in Los Angeles.

Rodin Eckenroth/Getty

“I remember meeting her when she was 16, down in the basement as she was getting warmed up,” he reflects. “I met Catherine when she was 16, 10 years later. I didn’t know Auli’i well, but I had this remembrance of this very shared, intense moment where she was about to go and sing in front of 73 billion people, which she did beautifully. It was my way to be conscious of the specialness that she possesses. There’s this light emanating from her. When I met Cathrine a decade later, I was like, ‘These are related energies.’”

The live-action *Moana* takes its cues from the 2016 original, adapting beat-for-beat the events of the animated musical with a few variations and new jokes thrown in. A young Moana, the future chieftain of Motunui, sets sail on the open water when the spirit of the ocean tasks her to find the demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson) and restore the stolen heart of the goddess Te Fiti.

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Kail says “maybe very early on” there was talk of featuring Cravalho in a small role, “but I think she also was quite intent on passing a torch,” he says. “She really wanted this to be Catherine’s. So it was never a major conversation about that idea.”

During an appearance on *Jimmy Kimmel Live* this week, Cravalho herself explained why she didn’t want to play Moana in the live-action film. “It’s lonely out here,” she told guest host Tiffany Haddish. “I can count on one hand the amount of Asian American Pacific Island talent, and when I say that I want to see more of sisters out here, I mean it.”

“It’s a credit to her generosity,” says Kail, who mentions that Cravalho never brought up the prospect of a cameo to him. “She just said, ‘I’m available for anything that can be useful.’ ... So when the song idea emerged, it actually felt like the most natural expression of how to bring these two things together.”

Kail and Miranda, whom the director met in 2002 through their theater work, “talked for months and months and months in preproduction” about what new music they could incorporate. They looked to the story itself; was there anything that hadn’t been expressed in the original? They also looked at a lot of scrapped musical ideas for the 2016 movie. They couldn’t find anything satisfying.

“They’d gone through this really rigorous process,” Kail explains. “As Lin and I were looking through it, we really felt like the musical expressions within the body of the film felt true. And then we started thinking about that end-credits sequence. The thing that doesn’t exist in our film, that you really might wanna feel, is our two heroes singing together.”

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The lyrics of “Along the Way” become this exchange with the Moana of the past calling to the Moana of the present, telling her “your ancestors are with you, right beside you.” It’s a reflection of Cravalho’s relationship with Laga’aia.

As an executive producer, the former Moana visited the set during filming. Even in preproduction, Kail remembers, “She and Catherine found each other when we were rehearsing. I just think there was an opportunity for insight all around.”

The live-action *Moana* opens in theaters this Friday.

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Source: “EW Musical”