‘Moana 2’s Directors On The Billion-Dollar Hit, ‘Moana 3’ And More

With a box office haul of over $1 billion, Moana 2 is finally coming to streaming. The hugely successful animated sequel has reached milestone after milestone. Two of the film’s three directors have found the journey as enlightening as the titular heroine’s experiences.

“All that box office, which is incredible, by the way, means a lot of people went and saw our movie, which is awesome,” muses Jason Hand as we sit and chat in the Disney Animation headquarters in Burbank, California. “First and foremost, the fact that our film goes across the world and connects with audiences is huge. We want our films to be financially successful, but what we’ve heard the most is that people enjoy going to the movies and seeing Moana 2 in the theaters. That’s a huge part of why we do this in the first place. It was incredible to have the audiences come to the theaters for us.”

Co-director David G. Derrick Jr. continues, “We’re here talking, but we’re representing over 550 people that helped finish this movie and see it to completion. We worked on it for over four years. It’s such a passion project, and seeing everyone’s work celebrated is humbling. We’re so grateful for everyone’s response.”

Moana 2 lands on Disney+, the platform where it was initially intended to debut, on Wednesday, March 12, 2025. It will be released on 4K and Blu-ray on Tuesday, March 18, 2025. Auli’i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson return as Moana and Maui for the follow-up, which sees Moana embarking on a dangerous journey to the far seas of Oceania after receiving an unexpected call from her wayfinding ancestors.

Moana grossed $687.2 million at the worldwide box office. Moana 2 has grossed $1.05 billion.

“It’s incredible, and it speaks to the love of the characters,” Hand explains. “We always say that Moana, as a character, is the best of us. She leads with empathy but is also funny, quirky, weird, and never gives up. Putting something out into the world that has a lot of joy, love, and appreciation of community is so cool, and that is why so many people have embraced it.”

Could There Be ‘Moana 3’ And A Broadway Musical?

Moana 2’s undeniable success, which both filmmakers find extremely humbling, raises the question of a third film in the series. It is only the fourth Disney animated movie to make over $1 billion at the box office, and a live-action reimagining of Moana is already on the way in 2026. Does all of this make a Moana 3 more likely? The path is there.

“If you’ve watched Moana 2, you know that we do leave the door open to fully discover what it means for Moana to be a demigod. Yes, she has gone beyond what she thought she could do,” Derrick Jr. explains through tight lips. “I love that people are asking that question. I hope someday we can talk about that.”

With two movies worth of songs and a multi-generational audience hungry for more, could the Moana universe follow in the musical footsteps of other classic Disney animations, such as The Lion King, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and Frozen, with a full show on the Broadway stage?

“It’s beautiful that we’ve been a part of creating a world and characters that are living new lives in different mediums, especially with the live-action film coming out as well. If there was anything else going on, I love that it can expand beyond what was initially created,” Derrick Jr. muses.

There is certainly money in Moana when it comes to brand extension. Both Moana and Maui have presences in Disney theme parks and resorts, including Disney’s Polynesian Villas and Bungalows in Orlando, Florida, and the Aulani Resort in Kapolei, Hawaii. That’s on top of the mountains of merchandise such as t-shirts and the red hot collectible Hei Hei Lego model.

“Isn’t Hei Hei just the best?” Derrick Jr. laughs. “We were there when that version of Hei Hei was finally discovered. It was a story artist, Ryan Green, who said, ‘What if we took this chicken and lowered his IQ.’ He did a whole IQ chart, and it was just lower than the lowest rung. It is so relatable and dumb, but everyone loves that chicken. We told a story about growth and evolution, except for Hei Hei, who you never get to change.”

Hand continues, “I will say to the merchandising and all that, it’s so cool to actually be able to go out there and see it in the world. It’s reflecting the love of the film that we’ve been a part of and helped create, and it’s an amazing feeling to see that. Moana, Maui, and all these new characters we created are being embraced, and seeing people dressing up as them or wearing a shirt that has them on it is incredible.”

Audiences have embraced Moana, but some movie lovers still have unanswered questions. If you do a Google search for ‘How to direct,’ one of the top search results is ‘How to direct an animated movie.’ So, how does it differ from a live-action movie? In a nutshell, the creatives become the actors that Hand and Derrick Jr. explain things to, and the various departments bring them to life, piece by piece.

“As directors, we have to hold and protect the theme. We have to protect our character’s journey, but then we have to be open to all the different ideas that can help get us there,” Derrick Jr. muses. “When I think about the collaboration that it took to finish Moana and Moana 2, it came from every single department, people bringing new ideas and elevating things we didn’t know were there.”

Hand adds, “You’re always looking for what you want to feel in a moment and what you want the audiences to be experiencing. It’s speaking in a language that would be really similar, honestly, to a live-action film, which is ultimately saying, ‘I want to get this across,’ and clarifying what the emotions of the scene are and what Moana is going through is the key to a lot of that. We work with a lot of people who are incredibly skilled in their individual departments and can bring that to life for us. Whether it’s how Moana is acting or how her hair or clothing reacts, it is all about the story of it all. It comes down to what I think you would do in any live-action film, which is, emotionally, what are they going through and what do you want to feel?”

The Moment The ‘Moana 2’ Directors Knew They Were Making Magic

Although Hand, Derrick Jr., and their co-director Dana Ledoux Miller are finally ending their Moana 2 journey, they’ll never forget the moment they knew what they and the 500-plus-person team were doing was something special. Hand goes first.

“There are several moments, but one of them was when we uncovered the core of the idea of continued evolution and growth for a character, so, ‘You never stop choosing who you are,’ is one of them,” he recalls. “When you hear the first song that really feels like Moana, that’s another one. There are pieces of it, and you’re constantly trying to find those moments that really connect and make you feel something when you initially react to it because we have worked on it for so long. Those two are at the top of my mind.”

A melancholy Derrick Jr. interjects, “For me, it was drawing a hermit crab over and over again. This hermit crab had to leave its shell and become vulnerable to find a new version of itself. As soon as we held that theme of personal growth and evolution, we felt like we had something that was universal to anyone at any age. Sometimes, in animated movies, with character arcs, you feel like it’s the end of their life. They don’t have anything else. However, we know that in life we are always choosing who we are. We’re always growing and evolving. To show that on screen was very important.”

“I think the end of the film speaks to that on the idea of that song Mana Vavau, where Maui earns the right to become a demigod again, and Moana becomes a demigod right before our eyes,” Hand concludes. “When we saw those moments start to come together, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is incredible.’ It blew away our expectations for what those moments could be when all the pieces came together, the music, the visuals, the feeling you get as you’re watching this happen as all of her ancestors are surrounding her, that was the linchpin to making Moana 2 come together for me.”