Lin-Manuel Miranda – the man behind Hamilton, In The Heights, and the songs for Moana and Encanto – is a huge fan of The Little Mermaid, so when he was asked to write new songs for Disney's live-action adaptation, he jumped at the chance.
However, he didn't take the gig without a certain amount of trepidation, and wanted to ensure that one of his favorite Disney movies was in safe hands.
In addition to penning the new musical numbers, ‘For The First Time’, for Halle Bailey’s Ariel; ‘Wild Uncharted Waters’, for Jonah Hauer-King’s Prince Eric; and ‘Scuttlebutt’, for Awkwafina’s Scuttle, Miranda boarded the project as a producer, and assigned himself a very specific task.
“I said, ‘I will sign on as a producer. But really the hat I’m wearing is Chairman of the ‘Don’t F*ck It Up’ committee,” he joked(?) during an interview with Empire. “And I will weigh in when I think you’re f*ckin’ it up!”
The Little Mermaid trailers seem to have gone over fairly well with fans (the usual trolling aside), but we won't know for sure if Miranda did his job until the movie swims into theaters on May 26.