In Darby and the Dead, after suffering a near-death experience as a young girl, Darby Harper gains the ability to see dead people and spends her time counselling lonely spirits. When Capri, the Queen Bee of the school's most exclusive clique, dies in a freak hair straightening accident, her upcoming "Sweet 17" is (obviously) cancelled.
Capri, however, pleads with Darby from the other side to intervene and convince Capri’s friends to proceed with the party as planned. In order to appease the wrath of the undead diva, Darby must emerge from her self-imposed exile and reinvent herself - which along the way allows her to find new joy back in the land of the living.
Auli'i Cravalho plays Capri in the hilarious new supernatural comedy, though many of you might remember her best for starring as the title character in Moana.
That was released in 2016 to overwhelmingly positive reviews and, perhaps most importantly, a massive $645 million at the worldwide box office. Needless to say, it's hard to understand why Disney Animation has never released a big screen sequel, especially since Auli'i Cravalho's Moana and Dwayne Johnson's Maui were a hit with fans.
Now, with Disney Animation expanding its efforts to the small screen on Disney+ (where we've recently enjoyed seeing follow-ups to both Big Hero 6 and Zootopia), the opportunity is there for the franchise to be expanded in new and exciting ways.
During a recent interview with us to discuss her role in Darby and the Dead, we asked Auli'i about whether she hopes to reunite with The Rock for a Moana follow-up. To that, she simply responded, "My lips are sealed, my friend. I’m very excited for Moana’s future [Laughs]."
We'd say it's pretty obvious that something is in the works!
It's worth noting that, at Disney's Investor Day in 2020, David D. Derrick Jr. was announced as the director of a musical long-form series picking up where Moana left off. We've heard nothing about it since, but have to believe this is the project Auli'i is seemingly so excited about.
With any luck, we'll have more details to share with you on that one soon.
Darby and the Dead premieres on Hulu on December 2.