SPOILERS are ahead for Moana 2, now playing exclusively in theaters.
I don’t know about you, but I was not expecting Marvel’s famous post-credits scene trend to carry over into a Walt Disney Animation movie, but that very much goes down at the end of the sequel. Now that Moana’s return is no longer one of the upcoming Disney movies and expected to have a huge debut at the box office, we can talk about how her second wayfinding voyage shakes out and how it could be setting up Moana 3. CinemaBlend spoke to Auli’i Cravalho and the filmmakers about their take on the Moana 2 ending and the character’s future.
What Auli'i Cravalho And The Directors Say About The Moana 2 Ending
At the end of Moana 2, Moana, Maui and her crew successfully find the island of Motufetu, thus connecting their people once more. But it’s not without a ton of peril and danger. While they are trying to raise the island back up, Moana rushes into the ocean to break the curse it has on it, but basically drowns in the process. However, Maui has her back, and with the help of her ancestors, they revive her. After the act of magic, Moana earns her first tattoos as a wayfinder and from my reading of it, is turned into a demigod herself. Since the movie doesn’t explicitly state this, I asked voice actress Auli’i Cravalho. Here was her response:
What do you think? …It opens a whole new world. That’s all I can say.
Cravalho wouldn’t come out and clarify the ending herself, turning the question to me, but based on her response and the movie itself, I have a feeling I am correct. Moana is now a demigod, too! When I asked one of the writer/director Dana Ledoux-Miller, she was hush-hush too, but she did say this:
I don’t want to give too much away, but this is a film about personal growth and about realizing – Gramma Tala says it – that you never stop choosing who you are. And I think for Moana, part of that means that she thought she knew exactly who she was at the end of that first film, and then things change and you grow up and you start learning new things about yourself and the world and making choices where you know that there are consequences. And I think Moana really comes to a place in this film where she has to make some really high stakes choices for the future of her people, and there are consequences to those actions.
One has to really read between the lines here, but I think she may be alluding to how Moana is placed in so much danger this time around that her literal life almost ends. She is saved by her ancestors, but now that she is a hero who was revived by the gods, her journey could only get more complicated from here.
Could There Be A Moana 3?
That brings us to the mid-credits scene in Moana 2, where it's revealed that Moana’s troubles are not over. The scene reveals the evil storm god Nalo, who has been keeping Matangi captive. While Matangi asks to be let go, he suggests that his evil plans are only beginning. Oh, and Tamatoa also shows up, perhaps as a sidekick to the coming threat. When I asked Auli’i Cravalho about her future as Moana, she said this:
I love this character so much. I’ve had her in my bones all these years. I hope that I never have to say goodbye to her.
It sounds to me that Moana’s journey may very much continue! I also spoke to chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation about the mid-credit scene, and he shared these words about more Moana:
I’d say, I would be very excited to be back on the canoe with Moana and Maui.
We’ll have to see! It’ll certainly depend on how Moana 2 does commercially, I imagine. So far, the movie has been received pretty well from critics (with some complaints about Lin-Manuel Miranda not returning to do the music). You can check out CinemaBlend’s Moana 2 review which gives the movie a 3.5 out of 5 stars.
