Disney fans have raved since Mufasa: The Lion King hit theaters on December 20, 2024. With beautiful animation and storytelling, the prequel evokes the mid-90s Disney renaissance, partly thanks to one man. Lin Manuel Miranda, the award-winning writer of Hamilton and In the Heights, contributed to his latest Disney project by writing all seven songs featured in Mufasa.
Mufasa was Miranada’s latest collaboration with Disney, working previously to co-write the music for Moana and Encanto. Miranda received immense praise for his previous Disney projects. Still, after director Barry Jenkins tapped him to collaborate on The Lion King prequel, he felt even more pressure to get the music right.
“It was daunting, I was low-key daunted,” Miranda told Deadline. Following up on one of the greatest Disney soundtracks in history and filling the shoes of Hanz Zimmer and Elton John was no small task for Miranda. Luckily, Miranda wasn’t alone. Accompanying him in the studio were Lebo M. and Dace Metzger, who produced the soundtrack for The Lion King’s stage adaptation.
Miranda drew inspiration from his real life. The breakout song, “I Always Wanted a Brother,” was inspired by the relationship between his two songs. “Writing ‘I Always Wanted a Brother’ was a chance to observe my kids,” he said. “I have a six-year-old and a ten-year-old. I’ve got two boys at home. They drive each other nuts, they run us all ragged, and they’re crazy about each other. That energy was what I was trying to draw on for that song.”
Despite “I Always Wanted a Brother” going viral on TikTok and getting stuck in every viewer’s head, Miranda admits it wasn’t the song he was most excited about. Miranda insisted on “Bye Bye,” the villain tune explicitly written for Kiros, played by Mads Mikkelsen, to make it into the film’s final cut. After discovering a video of Mikkelsen singing on a variety show in his 20s, he wrote the song.
Miranda was most passionate about “Tell Me It’s You,” the romantic ballad between Sarabi and Mufasa. Inspired by John’s “Can You Feel The Love Tonight,” he wanted to bring the same charm he recalled when he first experienced such music as a kid.
“I was happy to write an old-school romantic Disney ballad,” he said. “I am an elder millennial, and I grew up in the era of the Celine Dion closing credits tunes where you’d get ‘A Whole New World’ or ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ and I remember swooning as a little kid, so getting to write one of those was special, too.”
With Oscar buzz surrounding “Tell Me It’s You,” Mufasa could finally be Miranda’s chance to secure the coveted and highly elusive EGOT.
