This fall, Disney fans will have the opportunity to once again set sail with Moana and Maui for an all-new animated adventure from the House of Mouse. Since the iconic animation studio unveiled the first Moana 2 trailer on Wednesday, it has already broken a major record, becoming the most viewed trailer for a Disney animated movie. With that massive news in mind, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson sweetly responded to the milestone.
No, he didn’t say “You’re Welcome.” In a post on his Instagram Stories, he shared the impressive amount of times the Moana 2 trailer was viewed in 24 hours (178 million times) and wrote this:
GRATEFUL🪝🌺🙏🏽
The Rock is feeling all the gratitude around being part of the Moana sequel, especially considering all the enthusiasm that’s already around it. The Moana 2 first look beat out the previous record holder, Inside Out 2, which debuted online with 157 million views in its first day. Before that it was Frozen 2, which earned 116 million viewers in its first 24 hours. Along with The Rock’s response, Auli’i Cravalho, who will reprise her voice role as Moana in the sequel, wrote this on Instagram:
Mahalo nui loa Moana ‘ohana!! You’ve made #Moana2 THEE most watched trailer in @disneyanimation history!!! 🥹🥳💕 November 27th can’t come soon enough… 🌀
Cravalho said “Thank you very much Moana family!!” in Hawaiian before gushing about the massive record. The record seems to be an early signal that Moana 2 could be a big hit at the box office this fall when it debuts in theaters on the same day as Wicked Part 1. Check out the trailer everyone’s tuning into:
Moana 2 will take place three years after the events of the first movie, making the Polynesian princess 19 this time around. As the trailer illustrates, Moana will once again leave the island of Motunui and set sail on an adventure after receiving some sort of mysterious call from her wayfaring ancestors. As the end of the first look shows, she’ll run into The Rock’s Maui while on her journey. Oh, and this time around, Pua the pig will be joining the adventure alongside HeiHei!
The sequel originally started as a streaming series for Disney+ before the studio decided to make it a big screen movie instead. It was written and directed by David G. Derrick Jr., and will once again be a musical, with Mark Mancina and Opetaia Foa'i composing and The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical’s Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear writing the original lyrics.
Moana 2 comes as the original movie is also among upcoming live-action Disney remakes on the way. Dwayne Johnson will play a live-action Maui and the global search is currently on to find a live-action Moana. Moana 2 lands in theaters on November 27.
