Lin-Manuel Miranda felt pressure writing ‘Mufasa’ songs since original ‘Lion King’ album was ‘all bangers’

By Lisa Respers France, CNN

(CNN) — Lin-Manuel Miranda is a busy man but also careful.

The “Hamilton” creator appeared on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” this week, where Fallon mentioned that he and Miranda are both going to be on Broadway together in “All In: Comedy About Love,” which will mark Fallon’s Broadway debut.

Miranda has also been working on a concept album titled “Warriors,” as well as some original songs for the forthcoming film “Mufasa: The Lion King.” The former features some hip-hop legends, including Nas, Lauryn Hill and Ghostface Killa.

Miranda told Fallon he would have to be careful not to cross streams with the work he was doing writing for “Mufasa,” which is a Disney film.

“Anytime Mufasa started cursing, I was like, ‘That’s the wrong one,’” Miranda joked. “Actually, honestly, I think working on ‘Mufasa’ raised the bar for me because I knew was stepping into the world of ‘Lion King.’ That original album is like an all bangers, no skips.”

He also reminded the audience that the original album only had a few songs on it, including “Circle of Life” and “Hakuna Mata.” Miranda said he wanted to maintain the quality of the music.

“I went into every song in ‘Mufasa’ with that energy of, ‘This is a no skips album,’” he said.

That includes a ballad he wrote for the new film.

“All of the Disney characters I’ve written for have been very like empowered heroines who don’t need a man, but I got to write like a ballad,” Miranda said. “And then the other thing was, I remember reading online someone saying, ‘Lin doesn’t write villain songs.’ Like Michael Jordan, I took that personally. I wrote a villain song and Mads Mikkelson sings it because he’s the big villain in the movie, and he’s terrifying.”

“Mufasa: The Lion King” is in theaters December 20.

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