Mufasa: The Lion King soundtrack – Lin-Manuel Miranda on inspiration behind new songs

For his work creating blockbuster stage musical Hamilton, and for his compositions for Disney animations Moana and Encanto, the New Yorker has won a Pulitzer Prize, two Oliviers, two Emmys, three Tonys and five Grammys, and been twice nominated for an Oscar.

Now he’s turned his musical talents to Barry Jenkins’s live-action Lion King prequel, Mufasa: The Lion King.

How old were you when you started composing?

There exists a cassette of me singing The Garbage Pail Kids Are in Town. They were collectible, disgusting spoofs of the Cabbage Patch Kids. So I made up a rambling, 10-minute song: "The Garbage Pail Kids are in town, but they are so ugly, you wouldn’t want to see them..." Very few rhymes in it! Just me scatting! I was four or five.

You've written for the soundtracks of Moana, Encanto and last year's live-action Little Mermaid. How does working on each musical movie differ?

Hamilton hadn’t come out when I interviewed alongside a lot of other composers for Moana, which was a few years into development. I was lucky enough to get the gig. Encanto: I was there when the team was assembled. We threw all our family stories in a pot, and what came out was Encanto. And with Mufasa, the script existed and was great. So my job was: how can I be of service to Barry and the story he’s trying to tell?

The 1994 Lion King featured Circle of Life, Be Prepared, Hakuna Matata and Can You Feel the Love Tonight. How on the savannah do you follow the finest works of Sirs Elton John and Tim Rice?

If it had been a direct line, the original was the only movie [without the 2019 remake] and this was the next one, I’d have said no! It’s all bangers, it’s perfect. But what’s amazing is there’s a larger world of Lion King, particularly with the Broadway musical – I really think of Lion King as a genre of music.

Can you give us a taste of one of your new songs for Mufasa?

In the story, Mufasa’s friend Taka goes: "I have a secret – I always wanted a brother." I was like: "That’s such a good title for a song!" I’m the father of two boys, and that notion was not something I’d heard in a song before. It was also fun to establish Mufasa and Scar [as Taka becomes known], not as the enemies we know in the 1994 film, but as brothers and best friends.

What do your boys Sebastian (10) and Francisco (six) think of the films you've worked on?

I can’t separate the films from their childhoods. The day I got the job for Moana was the day we found out we were having our eldest. Encanto was written during lockdown, so my youngest loves that because he heard Daddy writing it. The beta testing of all my songs is catching my kids singing them without knowing I’m around. Then I know I’m in good shape.

Did you watch Disney films as a kid yourself?

I still have The Little Mermaid on VHS. When that calypso, Caribbean number Under the Sea started underwater, it ignited my imagination like nothing else.

You practised your cockney accent in the 2018 film Mary Poppins Returns by listening to British music-hall. Can you remember what?

I remember Tommy Steele! But listen, when it came to Mary Poppins, I knew Dick Van Dyke had a famously derided accent. So I thought, "Either I’ll jump that bar, which is a very low bar, or I’ll meet him down there and they’ll go: 'Oh, he has a s*** accent, it’s a tradition!'" I think I landed somewhere in between!

You've spent a lot of time in the UK shooting the BBC's His Dark Materials in Cardiff — how did you enjoy your time there?

A lot of my London friends were pretty snobby about Wales, but we loved it. My kids were at the right age, where having a castle every 500 yards is pretty cool. I fell in love with a bar called Porter’s that did a music theatre night called Jane’s Calamity. I made minor headlines singing karaoke there with a bunch of strangers.

Please can you explain the thinking behind your new, hip-hop-inspired concept album for a musical based on cult 1979 gang movie The Warriors?

I’m stealing a page from your countryman, Andrew Lloyd Webber. Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita began as concept albums. When I think about …Superstar, I think about Murray Head – these rock singers who put their fingerprints on these roles and set a blueprint. It means that when the album comes out, people go: "When can we see the show?" Then we go: "Oh, s***, we gotta make the show!" That’s the hope.

You're an upbeat guy — how do you maintain that famously positive demeanour in the midst of the geopolitical storm going on in the United States?

I’m so offline! I was famously addicted to Twitter [now called X] for about 10 years. I hopped off three or four years ago, even before Elon Musk started getting silly on there. You can keep a positive attitude if you protect your energy. That doesn’t mean you don’t keep up on what’s going on in the world. But you don’t have to fight with strangers [on social media] all day. Which I used to do!

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Mufasa will land in cinemas on Friday 20th December 2024.

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