Lin-Manuel Miranda reflects on a lifelong Disney influence as he is named a Disney Legend

Lin-Manuel Miranda says being named a Disney Legend still feels “surreal,” reflecting on the early impact of The Little Mermaid and on how Disney has provided a platform for his work to reach audiences across theater, screen, and streaming. The company is featuring Miranda in a “Disney Legends in Conversation” Q&A ahead of the Disney Legends Award ceremony, which will mark the final day of D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event presented by Visa.

Disney’s highest honor will be presented this year to 13 individuals spanning multiple creative disciplines, including Chris Berman, Jerry Bruckheimer, Susan Egan, Eric Goldberg, Anne Hathaway, Bob Iger, Kim Irvine, Dwayne Johnson, the Jonas Brothers, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Alan Tudyk. The Disney Legends Award ceremony is positioned by the company as a set-piece tribute inside its broader multi-day fan event, hosted by Ryan Seacrest.

In the conversation, Miranda ties his career aspirations to Disney’s musical storytelling, describing how watching The Little Mermaid at age 9 helped shape his path into the arts. He says he saw the film three times in theaters, and even went as far as buying a Sing-a-Long Songs VHS so he could repeatedly watch songs including “Under the Sea” and “Kiss the Girl,” before YouTube existed for kids.

Miranda also addressed what it meant to be recognized now in the context of that personal history. He points to Howard Ashman and Alan Menken as musical storytellers whose work, he says, “rocked” him when he was young, and he frames the honor as a continuation of that lineage rather than a standalone milestone.

The Q&A links Miranda’s Disney career to specific projects. When asked about writing music for Moana, he says it was “a dream come true,” and credits friendships with Bobby and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, who he describes as already contributing music for Disney projects including Frozen and songs in the parks. He adds that he learned he got the Moana job the same day his wife, Vanessa, and he found out they were expecting a baby.

Miranda also discussed his involvement in Mary Poppins Returns, describing it as an immediate decision. He characterizes director Rob Marshall as a visionary in translating live musical theater to film and describes the experience as a “masterclass in directing,” with the cast including Emily Blunt and Meryl Streep.

One of the most detailed parts of the conversation concerns Hamilton’s path from Broadway to Disney screens. Miranda describes the filming itself as something the team did without knowing where it would ultimately land, saying they wanted to capture what they had “before too much of this extraordinary company left the building.” He then points to Disney+ as a way families could watch together at home in 2020 and says that a limited theatrical release in 2025 was meant to bring back what he calls the communal, big-screen energy.

On viral success, Miranda tells Disney Legends in Conversation that he did not expect “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from Encanto to become a global phenomenon. Instead, he frames the moment as an emotional match to what many families were feeling when people were “stuck at home,” and he adds that the song’s structure gives multiple characters distinct musical styles, allowing children and families to “act out the whole thing together.”

For Mufasa: The Lion King, Miranda describes the challenge of evolving a musical legacy built by earlier Disney Legends, including Lebo M., Elton John, and Hans Zimmer. He says he wanted to work with director Barry Jenkins and that, after reading the script, the songs “leaped off the page,” with the work focused on the emotional beats of young Mufasa and Scar and their brotherhood before tragedy.

Disney Legends, the company notes, is a long-running honors program with 39 years of tradition. It began in 1987 when Fred MacMurray was honored, and this year’s class brings the total number of Disney Legends named to 329. The same page lists past honorees across entertainment and creative leadership, including Alan Menken, Idina Menzel, Tim Allen, Julie Andrews, James Cameron, Whoopi Goldberg, Robin Roberts, Steve Jobs, and others.

What is not disclosed in the company’s Q&A is any operational detail about the ceremony itself, such as the specific segment schedule at D23, production format, or how the program will be distributed beyond the event experience. The release also does not provide new commercial metrics tied to Miranda’s Disney projects, sticking instead to biography, creative influences, and retrospective reflections. Still, the emphasis on film, music, and filmed theater content highlights how Disney positions its honors as a bridge between creative legacy and audience access across channels.

Looking ahead within D23 programming, the company’s next steps will likely be how it stages tributes to all 13 honorees at the Legends ceremony and how it frames their contributions in the broader fan-event storyline. For Disney and the market watchers, the immediate watch item is whether the company continues to connect its awards storytelling to the distribution strategy behind major titles, including Disney+ and theatrical releases, as it has in the Hamilton discussion.