As previously reported, Hamilton creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda will be providing the voice of Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera, aka Gizmoduck, in a new episode of DuckTales premiering this month. The new episode, titled "Beware the B.U.D.D.Y. System!," will debut as part of the Disney Channel's inaugural "Duck Week," and courtesy of an exclusive EW video we now have our first look at Lin-Manuel's performance.
In the video, Miranda discusses the similarities between his DuckTales character the Alexander Hamilton, the part he played in the Broadway show Hamilton.
“Hamilton and Gizmoduck would totally be friends,” he explains. “They both try too hard and they’re both too smart for their own.”
In addition tot he video, EW met up with DuckTales reboot creators Francisco Angones and Matt Youngberg who shed some light on the updated version of Fenton Crackshell/Gizmoduck as well as Miranda's portrayal of the character.
"We knew that we wanted to update the Fenton Crackshell/Gizmoduck character. Because I’m Cuban we wanted to provide an opportunity to have [more representation]. Gizmoduck is the main superhero character in Ducktales, and there’s not a ton of Latin American representation in superheroes generally. We thought it was a great opportunity," said Agones. He explained that they wrote the character with Miranda in mind, although they weren't originally sure the Broadway star would be able to play the part.
The two were also asked if they made any use of Miranda's rapping or musical talents in the show.
"One of the funny things about Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera as a character is, he talks a mile a minute. Lin obviously talks a mile a minute, but the issue with Lin is, he’s so good at talking so fast and having people understand every single word that when you’re listening to him talk it doesn’t sound that fast. So we had to actually try to make Lin worse in talking than he is in rapping. So it sounds like he’s jumbling and fumbling all over himself because he’s this kind of absent-minded character," Youngberg explained. "Lin’s too competent is the problem, he’s just too good at everything. It would be a little weird for our nerdiest character to all of a sudden be a hip-hop savant."
Miranda's Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera/Gizmoduck will make his grand debut on May 11 at 8pm ET when DuckTales airs on Disney Channel and DIsneyNOW.