Disney’s live-action re-imagining of The Little Mermaid was given a hefty push back in the upcoming release schedule last year, moving by over a year to May 26, 2023. While principal photography was completed toward the end of last year, the number of delays and continued uncertainties about how this year would pan out led Disney to ultimately make sure that all of their big upcoming movies had enough time to complete their post-production work without the need for more staggered and last minute delays. When the film does finally arrive in cinemas, it will bring with it all of the classic songs of the 1989 animated movie as well as new tracks co-written by frequent Disney collaborator Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Miranda has worked with Disney on a number of occasions in the past, having starred in Mary Poppins Returns, provided music for the Star Wars franchise and wrote the songs for Moana, including How Far I’ll Go. Most recently, he wrote the songs for the hit movie Encanto, including We Don’t Talk About Bruno, the first Disney movie song to hit the top of the singles chart in both the U.S. and U.K. simultaneously. For The Little Mermaid, Miranda has teamed up with original songwriter Alan Menken on the Rob Marshall-directed movie to provide some new songs on the expanded live-action take on the much-loved animated classic.

Speaking on Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast, Miranda talked about what it was like working with Menken and how despite providing four new songs to the movie, he has yet to see even a rough cut of how it all looks. He explained:

“Alan Menken called me and he had just seen a rough cut and he flipped out. Alan will tell you if he does not like something. He’s a heart and opinion on sleeve guy. He’s scoring it as well, along with the songs, as he did with the original. I won’t see a rough cut for another month or couple of months, but the fact that he’s excited has me excited. We wrote three or four original tunes, replacing none of the ones you like. All of those are in. There’s no bigger ‘Little Mermaid’ fan than me. We found a couple of opportunities for some other music that I can’t wait to see. I’m in the dark as anyone else, honestly.”

The Little Mermaid Will Bring New Songs to Some Characters, But Not All

Melissa McCarthy Wanted as Ursula in Disney's Little Mermaid Remake

Just like Aladdin, The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast, Disney’s live-action remakes of its animated classics have had to expand on the original movies to make a reasonable-length feature film. While many old Disney animations clock in somewhere between 80-90 minutes long, a live-action film is usually expected to hit closer to the two hours mark these days. With this in mind, the musical core of most Disney films means that these live-action remakes include new story details, expanded plots and new songs. So far, this has unleashed the likes of Speechless from Aladdin and Evermore from Beauty and the Beast.

While there will be up to four new songs in The Little Mermaid, one person who won’t be getting an additional tune will be the sea witch, Ursula, played by Melissa McCarthy. Miranda said, “I don’t think I have a song for Ursula, I mean Poor Unfortunate Souls just does all the work. But Rob [Marshall] did find a creative way to hear from Ariel, even though she is sans voice for a while, and we wrote some music in her time on land. She gets to experience a lot of firsts as someone with legs for the first time, so we got to lean into all of that.”

When asked whether Daveed Diggs, who plays Sebastian, will be getting to wrap in the movie, Miranda quickly clammed up, saying, “I can feel Bob Chapek moving closer, and I can say no more.”

Disney’s The Little Mermaid is currently scheduled for release on May 26, 2023.