Lin-Manuel Miranda Teases A Song For A Voiceless Ariel In The Little Mermaid Remake

Lin-Manuel Miranda keeps stacking up wins. After delivering arguably the most influential musical of the 21st century so far with "Hamilton," Miranda's become a common fixture in the entertainment industry. He's acted in the likes of "Mary Poppins Returns" and "Vivo," and in 2021, he made his feature-length movie directorial debut for Netflix's "Tick, Tick... Boom!" 2022 could easily keep his upward trajectory going strong, as he's been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Dos Oruguitas" from the "Encanto" soundtrack. 

However, Miranda isn't resting on his laurels just yet. He's still introducing new music to the masses, and at the moment, he's hard at work on the live-action "Little Mermaid" film in development at Disney. He's the co-composer and co-producer for the movie, which means we can anticipate some new Miranda tracks for the film in addition to the classic Alan Menken numbers from the original. Miranda may need to stay tight-lipped about the specifics, but he did offer a slight hint that should intrigue fans wondering how exactly the songwriter will impact the iconic story.

With an Oscar nomination and EGOT status potentially on the way, it makes sense Variety would sit down with Lin-Manuel Miranda for the Awards Circuit Podcast. He covers a wide range of topics from "Tick, Tick... Boom!" to "Encanto," but the podcast also spends some time looking ahead, specifically when it comes to Miranda's work on "The Little Mermaid." After quickly assuring listeners that all of their favorite songs from the original would be in the remake, Miranda described how they managed to find some moments where they could include some new songs that will hopefully become people's favorites. 

Intriguingly, Miranda found a place for a song where you wouldn't ordinarily expect one to be. As he puts it, "I will tell you that Rob [Marshall] found a really creative way to hear from Ariel even though she is sans voice for a little while, and we wrote some music in her time on land that was really exciting, because, you know, she gets to experience a lot of firsts as someone with legs for the first time, so we got to lean into all of that musically which was exciting."

It'll be interesting to see how the new musical sequence comes together, but if there's anyone who could pull it off, it's the team of Lin-Manuel Miranda, Alan Menkin, and Rob Marshall.