It was honestly surprising that it took Disney so long to add The Little Mermaid to their growing list of live-action remakes, and although it was announced a bit later than the rest of the studio’s projects, it may be a bit closer to happening than we thought. Today brings word that Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda will work on the music for the live-action retelling of Disney’s animated classic, collaborating with original composer Alan Menken.

It’s difficult to say which is the more exciting aspect of Deadline’s report: Lin-Manuel Miranda or Alan Menken. The former has become a recent favorite at Disney, where he’s worked on the music for the animated film Moana and is set to star opposite Emily Blunt in the Mary Poppins sequel. Menken won an Oscar for Best Original Song and Best Score for his work on the original animated version of The Little Mermaid, which Disney released in 1989.

Miranda and Menken (which would make a great cabaret act, BTW) will work together on the live-action remake, combining music from the original film with brand new songs — which is really awesome news all around. The creator and star of Hamilton is also apparently a big fan of The Little Mermaid, and even named his son after Sebastian, Ariel’s singing crustacean friend.

With the news of Miranda and Menken’s collaboration, it appears that Disney has put their live-action Little Mermaid remake on the fast track — not entirely surprising, as Universal has been developing their own live-action take on the classic Hans Christian Andersen story, with Chloe Moretz set to play the title role.

Disney’s next live-action release is Beauty and the Beast, which stars Emma Watson and Dan Stevens, and hits theaters next March. The studio’s other projects include Cruella with Emma Stone, Tim Burton’s Dumbo, Jungle Cruise with Dwayne Johnson, Ava DuVernay’s adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time, Tinker Bell with Reese Witherspoon, and The Jungle Book 2 and Maleficent 2.

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