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As Moana 2 continues to break big at the box office during the holiday season, the Disney Princess is set to be central to another one of the upcoming Disney movies when the live-action Moana hits theaters in 2026. When CinemaBlend spoke to Moana voice actress Auli’i Cravalho about passing the torch to another person, she shared her excitement over the next Moana.

In the new Moana movie, Auli’i Cravalho spoke with us about the sequel being the “first time in Disney history” a Disney Princess is allowed to age, and she found it refreshing. But when it comes to going back and telling the story of a 16-year-old Moana sailing the seas with Maui, the actress is looking forward to seeing the new iteration.
Transcript
00:00Your relationship with The Rock over the years, how has that kind of changed throughout this specifically doing the voiceover
00:07for this time around?
00:08I feel really lucky because I am now an executive producer on the live action Moana, which means that I
00:14have Dwayne on a text chain and we send voice notes back and forth.
00:19I see him on Zooms and on emails and things.
00:22And it's really nice to have met him at 14 and thought of him as a role model certainly then.
00:30And now I get to look at him as also a colleague, someone who shares insight on the business, things
00:36that I really don't know about.
00:37I know about being talent and producing is a very different muscle, a very different hat to put on, but
00:43I'm very happy to be learning as well.
00:45And speaking of the live action, I think it's lovely that you're a producer on it.
00:50And, you know, kind of connecting it with this movie on Moana having a sister and Samia,
00:54I was wondering how kind of getting to share that role now with the new actress, how that feels and
01:00how you get to maybe get to share what you're most excited to share with her.
01:04I feel like the Moana universe or the Moanaverse is simply expanding tenfold.
01:11So we have our original film, we have our sequel, and then, yes, we have our live action.
01:15And I love that I'm able to pass the baton on to Catherine Lagaya.
01:20She's so beautiful.
01:22I feel like she really represents Moana in a fantastic way.
01:25I also, I'm 24 now, and I'm glad to see someone young, someone hungry, someone green to the industry taking
01:33those shoes.
01:34Because I can count on one hand the amount of young Pacific Island women I see in this industry.
01:39And I'm glad to have a friend.
01:41I'm really glad.
01:42It's lonely out here.
01:45It's lonely out here.

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