Ariana DeBose just reached a major career milestone by being the lead voice actress behind Disney’s Wish. The latest of the upcoming Disney movies has the Hamilton and West Side Story actress singing original Disney songs as the House of Mouse celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. Considering both DeBose and Lin-Manuel Miranda share being part of the Hamilton-to-Disney Animation pipeline, we asked the Wish star if they’re geeking out off to the side about their parallel journey.
Lin-Manuel Miranda, of course, created Hamilton before becoming a frequent collaborator at the Walt Disney Company since hanging up his coat at the Broadway hit. Miranda made music for Moana, Encanto and the live-action The Little Mermaid, along with starring in Mary Poppins Returns. With DeBose joining the Disney family herself as Wish’s Asha, here’s what she told us when I made the connection:
Oh, you know, not specifically. I mean, we're both nerds, I can tell you that. And so we geek out just over anything that we talk about, like whether it's the Tony's or the next theater thing that's happening. But now I feel like I need to send him a text on the next break and be like, wait, we haven't talked about this. Let's compare notes, Disney notes.
You can check out the CinemaBlend interview moment in the video above. When I followed up the question by sharing my hopes that the talent may collaborate with Lin-Manuel Miranda again someday, she started sending some kind of message with her eyes that makes me think there’s something cooking between these two already.
Release Date: November 22, 2023
Directed By: Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn
Written By: Jennifer Lee and Allison Moore
Starring: Ariana DeBose, Chris Pine, Alan Tudyk, Angelique Cabral, Victor Garber, Natasha Rothwell, Jennifer Kumiyama, Harvey Guillén, Evan Peters, Ramy Youssef, Jon Rudnitsky and Della Saba
Rating: PG for thematic elements and mild action
Runtime: 93 minutes
While Hamilton is a big part of Ariana DeBose’s journey to becoming a Disney lead, the actress, singer and dancer had a rather small part in the Broadway musical. She played the role of “The Bullet” in the original ensemble. She didn’t get to be center stage for that part, but The Bullet is one of those cool background details about Hamilton that really speaks to the intricacies of the award-winning musical.
DeBose and Miranda have remained friends since going separate ways after Hamilton, and as soon as I mentioned his name, the actress was eager to speak to her collaborator to geek about their Disney journeys. Now that I’ve seen DeBose light up about Miranda as soon as I mentioned him, I’m hoping the intriguing look she flashed my way does mean they are planning on working together in another way after Hamilton. I love when the Hamilton original cast teams back up, and I know they’d be an electric pairing.
Wish just hit theaters just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday. You can check out the first reactions following the Wish premiere and our Wish review here on CinemaBlend.
