Still mourning the fact that you missed your chance to see Lin-Manuel Miranda live and in person on Broadway? (Yeah, me too.) Well, this news is just about the next best thing: according to the Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning actor/composer himself, Lin-Manuel Miranda might be starring in the Hamilton movie, as he teased in a podcast with The Hollywood Reporter. So while we won't necessarily get that whole "live and in person" aspect of his performance, we'll still probably get the chance to see him in Hamilton when it hits the big screen.
"Wait, what Hamilton movie??" you might be thinking right about now. It's true that, as of yet, no studio has officially announced or greenlit a Hollywood version of the popular Broadway musical; but you can bet those discussions are underway. And although Miranda was replaced in the role of Alexander Hamilton by Javier Muñoz in July of last year, it's hard to imagine a movie version of Hamilton with anyone else but its brainchild in the title role.
Miranda mentioned to THR that he thought it would be "years" before a Hamilton movie was actually made, but he seemed to throw his own hat into the ring when he told THR, "I don't think I'm done with that role, by any stretch." He continued:
"It's just a meal of a role. In other shows, maybe you have a part where you get to fall in love, maybe you have a part where you get to fight in a gun duel, maybe you get a part where you get to have an affair, maybe you get a part where you lose a loved one and get to explore all that. In Hamilton, you do all of that! You do everything you do in life in two hours and 45 minutes. You live your fullest life. So that never gets old."
Of course, the idea of Miranda himself starring in a Hamilton movie sort of flies in the face of the actor's previous assertion that all the best Hollywood musical adaptations were made "20 years after the fact," as he told Rolling Stone last June, citing Les Misérables, Chicago, and Cabaret as examples. But if Miranda really intends on starring in the film adaptation, hopefully it doesn't take two decades to make. (We all saw how poorly that can go when the Rent movie tried to reunite the musical's original Broadway cast after 12 years, only for none of them to be able to pass as fresh-out-of-college twentysomethings anymore.) At the start of Hamilton, the title character is a scrappy young immigrant… and it's hard to imagine a 57-year-old Miranda pulling that off, no matter how talented he is.
But maybe his reference to "20 years" was simply hyperbole and he simply meant that it would be a while until a movie got off the ground. Indeed, a Hollywood version of the show probably won't be made until the stage version stops turning a profit… which obviously won't be anytime soon. (It's the same reason a Wicked movie is only just now entering development.) Indeed, Miranda stopped short of dictating a decades-long moratorium on the idea of a Hamilton movie this time around.
While fans twiddle their thumbs in anxious anticipation for the Hamilton movie, there are thankfully plenty more Miranda projects to be excited about. In two weeks, he'll compete for an Oscar in the Original Song category for his Moana ear worm "How Far I'll Go" — a win there would make him the youngest EGOT in history at age 37. He'll also be performing the song himself at the Oscar ceremony, so that'll be your chance to see him live (if not in person). He'll also star alongside Emily Blunt in Disney's Mary Poppins Returns, which just started filming last week. A film adaptation of his previous Broadway musical In The Heights is already in development, with that show's book writer Quiara Alegría Hudes (herself a Pulitzer Prize winner for her 2011 play Water By The Spoonful) penning the screenplay.
And, as you may well remember, a production of Hamilton was filmed last summer before any of the original cast left. It has yet to be revealed what exactly will be done with that footage… but just knowing that it's out there should be reassuring for us Hamilfans who never got the chance to experience it for ourselves. Maybe they'll release it in a year or so to tide us over until the splashy big screen adaptation. Just, whatever happens, please do it right, Hollywood.
