Lin-Manuel Miranda’s lyrics lift heavy storyline in Disney’s ‘Mufasa: The Lion King’

Lin-Manuel Miranda is back on the Disney musical prowl, penning the lyrics that ease the heavy load in “Mufasa: The Lion King.”

The Barry Jenkins-directed prequel explores the unexpected rise of Pride Lands leader Mufasa (Aaron Pierre), once an orphaned cub who meets Taka (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), heir to a royal bloodline. Together, they journey through the joys and trials of brotherhood that eventually culminate in Mufasa’s triumphant legacy and Taka’s infamous transformation into Scar.

That transformation was a musical challenge that Miranda was eager to tackle in the computer-animated feature.

“Music gets the great responsibility of giving emotion to those turns when someone is on the verge of change,” Miranda tells The Times.

The storyline also unfolds with the wise mandrill Rafiki (John Kani), who recounts Mufasa’s past through flashbacks to Kiara (Blue Ivy Carter), the cub daughter of Simba (Donald Glover) and Nala (Beyoncé Knowles). Meanwhile, Timon (Billy Eichner) and Pumbaa (Seth Rogen) dish out their silly commentary, lightening the heavy tale.

“My job is to let us breathe and give us a break sometimes, because there’s some intense emotions,” said Miranda.

The “Hamilton” creator, which took home 11 Tony awards and the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in drama, won Grammys in 2018 for best song written for visual media for Disney’s “Moana” (“How Far I’ll Go”), and again in 2023 with “Encanto” (“We Don’t Talk About Bruno”).

“Mufasa: The Lion King,” premieres Dec. 20.

The interview below has been edited for clarity.

Excuse the skepticism here, but how can viewers expect the Disney feel-good energy when we know what the ending is already, which is Scar (Taka) turning on his own brother?

That’s one of the most exciting things about this. What we know about Mufasa and Scar at the start of “The Lion King” is that Mufasa is a good guy, Scar is a bad guy. The hardest thing to teach our kids is that no one’s just a good guy or a bad guy. It’s a nuance that we are all doing our best and we make good choices and bad choices, and sometimes our life experience leads us to think that bad choices are good choices.

So already I love that the existence of this prequel scrambles the good guy/bad guy hats. Music gets the great responsibility of giving emotion to those turns when someone is on the verge of change. Getting to lean into those heightened emotions, I mean, that’s the fun stuff.

There’s an incredible set of music masters in this film: Hans Zimmer (“The Lion King”), Pharrell Williams (“Despicable Me”), Lebo M (“The Woman King”), Mark Mancina (“Moana,” “Tarzan”). What was it like working with them?

It was extraordinary. I knew in saying yes to the job that I wanted to work with Lebo M, whose voice and arrangements are part of the original soundtrack’s success, and that of the Broadway musical. I had worked with Mark Mancina, who did the score for “Moana,” so I knew that I was in very good hands in terms of the musical landscape and the African rhythms.

Working for Barry Jenkins, who had never done a musical — although he’s very musical — he had incredible instincts and specific notes when I would bring in a song, and always made them sharper and better.

What role will music have in this film?

It’s funny, sometimes you get a script and it’s kind of up to you to figure out where the songs go, but they knew where they wanted the songs to carry the storytelling. In fact, the dialogue was so sharp that a lot of the song titles are actually just lines I took from Jeff Nathanson’s great script. “I always wanted a brother,” I was like, thank you, I’m taking that. That’s a song title. “Tell me it’s you.” Thank you. I’m taking that. So there was a lot on the page already, which is a huge head start.

There were also a few personal itches I got to scratch in writing this. I came of age in the romantic Disney era, but I never had a chance to write a really romantic ballad for a Disney film. “Moana does not have time for romance, and in “Encanto” we have too much generational trauma to unpack. It was nice to write romantic songs, but also to get to write the big, bad villain song.

Are any of the songs that you wrote humanizing Scar/Taka?

One hundred percent. You know the ending in stories and yet you’re still holding your breath hoping that the ending doesn’t happen. The opening song of “Hamilton,” Aaron Burr tells you, “I shot him” and then for the next 2½ hours you’re forgetting and hoping to God that he doesn’t shoot him. I think it’s similar to this. We all know the way that Mufasa and Scar feel about each other in the 1994 “Lion King” when we first meet them. Here, Taka has found an orphaned Mufasa, they adore each other, so there’s a notion of this animosity being the flip side of what was once so much love.

Barry Jenkins has said that this movie is very much based on familial bonds. Does that resonate with you?

I’m a father to two boys, so writing a song about two young lions bouncing around and causing trouble was probably the easiest song I’ve ever written. I had to look no further than the two lions making a mess of my office. They were very much an inspiration to me.

You talk about writing “joy bombs” in this film, music that spurs bliss. Can you expand on what joy bombs we will be seeing in this film?

This story, and similar to the original film, has echoes of Shakespearean tragedy, echoes of Bible stories. We deal with familial betrayal, which is a pretty hardcore theme in the Bible. You’re plucking these ancient chords. One of the first things I said to Barry was like, “My job is to let us breathe and give us a break sometimes, because there’s some intense emotions.” I thought the original movie did such a good job of holding space for loss and grief and still making kids feel safe. So sometimes the music responsibility is to do that too.

Besides this, are you working on anything new? Anything you want us to keep an eye out for?

I released a concept album with Eisa Davis called “Warriors,” based on the 1979 cult classic, one of my favorite movies. That came out in November this year and has an insane all-star roster of Lauryn Hill, Nas and Ghostface.

Next year, Eisa and I will start figuring out how to get that to the stage. We don’t know what form that will take, but we’ll see. I’m also acting in a Broadway play called “All In” in January, splitting duties with John Mulaney. It feels like a comedy fantasy camp.