Moana 2: Disney release special look revealing new characters ahead of film’s official release date

• A new trailer for Moana 2 has dropped, featuring new songs and revealing more of the story.
• The special look also reveals two new characters featuring in the film - including the main villain of the piece.
• Here’s what we’ve learned so far since the trailer dropped overnight.

Disney fans in the UK have woken up to a special treat from the House of Mouse, as the company released a special look at the forthcoming sequel to their hit Moana.

Moana 2 sees our titular Disney Princess embark on another journey, this time as she learns of an ancient island whose curse can only be broken if someone steps foot on it. Moana, being the intrepid explorer he came to love in the 2016 film, decides to attempt to break that curse assembling a crew including the returning Maui - voiced by Dwayne Johnson.

A new special look at Moana 2 has been released by Disney, including the reveal of new characters and the villain of the new film. | Disney

The special look reveals new characters, including Moana’s sister Simea, voiced by Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda, and this film’s big bad villain in the form of Matangi, voiced by Awhimai Fraser. Matangi might be a reference to the Pacific folklore of Āpu-matangi, though in the trailer they are the leader of the underworld instead.

The film also features a brand new set of songs, some of which included in the special feature, and the return of the beloved comic reliefs of Pua and Heihei, Moana’s animal companions.

Originally set to be a Disney+ television series, that idea pivoted into a full-length feature film after Disney CEO Bob Iger saw early footage and felt that the idea would work well as a fully formed animated feature. However, the initial idea to follow Moana’s story from the original film was one that remained throughout the sequel.

Director Dana Ledoux Miller explained: “In the first film, Moana showed incredible strength in her willingness to take off into unknown danger for the sake of her people. But now, her responsibilities are changing, and we've never really seen her have to lead her people day to day. It was really important to us to show her evolution in that way."

Moana 2 is currently scheduled for release on November 27 2024, while the original film is currently streaming now through Disney+.