'Moana 2' Darts To D23 With Official Trailer
Let the D23 coverage BEGIN! It’s going to be a wild and packed ride.
D23, this year changing out Expo for “The Ultimate Fan Event”, has officially begun, and the Disney Entertainment Showcase is packed full of first footage, trailers, and announcements from Disney Animation, Pixar, Star Wars, Avatar, Marvel Studios (live action only) and even some major theater news. First up in all of it was the official trailer for Moana 2, which releases in theaters on November 27, with stars Auli’i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson on stage to present it.
This trailer reveals Moana has become a big sister to 3-year-old Simea, whom Cravalho calls Moana’s “whole world.” As lesder, she explores nearby islands to find more people. She also faces a new, unknown enemy covered in purple light and surrounded by bats. “You will be destroyed, and your wayfinder too,” the villain warns. More comedically, there’s another joke she makes to Pua about coming along this time, and the Kakamora coconut tribe will pop up again on the attack and tranquilize Moana before she can effectively retaliate.
Cravalho opened the segment by singing “We’re Back”, one of Moana 2’s new songs, joined on stage by dancers and drummers from Nonosina Polynesia under the direction of Tiana Liufau, who contributed animation reference choreography for both films in the series. The film is directed and written by David Derrick Jr., Jason Hand and Dana Ledoux Miller, with first film co-director Jared Bush also getting writing credit, in what is a clear result of mishmashing elements from episodes of the series the film started out as. It also stars Temuera Morrison as Tui, Nicole Scherzinger as Sina, Rose Matafeo as Loto, David Fane as Kele, Hualālai Chung as Moni, and Alan Tudyk as Heihei. Grammy-winning songwriters Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, as well as the returning duo of Pacific legend Opeatia Foa‘i and composer Mark Mancina, are providing all the new songs for the film.
Johnson emphasized the idea of “believing that there is more, and having the guts to go for more … I know what it means for me, being a man of Polynesian culture, I’m half Black and half Samoan, and I know what this means for Auli’i too.” Strangely, there wasn’t much if anything at all discussed on the first film’s live-action remake, where Johnson will also be reprising his role as Maui, set for release on July 10, 2026, but Disney packed plenty of other live-action remakes into the presentation, including a different beloved Polynesia-based franchise.
And this wasn’t it for Johnson either, as he announced a further expansion in his Disney relationship, starring in Monster Jam, based on the prolific live motorsports event that has been running since 1992. It’s described as “a live-action, high-octane experience” from the perspective of participating monster truck drivers.
