Lin-Manuel Miranda has cleared up hypothesis about why he didn’t return to put in writing new songs for the current Moana sequel.

The Hamilton creator co-wrote the music for the primary Moana film, with the movie’s signature tune How Far I’ll Go even successful a Grammy and touchdown nominations on the Oscars, Golden Globes and Critics’ Alternative Awards.

Since then Lin-Manuel has labored with Disney on a variety of events, contributing songs to Encanto, the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid and the brand new Lion King film Mufasa, in addition to starring in Mary Poppins Returns.

Nevertheless, his work was noticeably absent from Moana 2, which he addressed on the Mufasa premiere on Monday night time.

Talking to Individuals journal, Lin-Manuel defined that as a result of the movie really started life as a TV collection, earlier than the choice was made to adapt it for the massive display, Disney “already had their songwriters”, and in consequence, there “was by no means a chance” for him to work on Moana 2.

Lin-Manuel added that he was “actually proud” of the movie’s songwriting group, made up of Opetaia Foa’i, Mark Mancina, Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, for his or her work within the new film.

Moana 2 has already been an enormous hit on the field workplace since its launch final month, though critics have been unanimous in saying that it paled compared to the unique movie.

In reality, some went so far as saying that Lin-Manuel Miranda’s absence was one of many key causes that Moana 2 didn’t handle to dwell as much as its predecessor.

Moana 2 is in cinemas now, with Mufasa slated for launch on Friday 20 December.