Lin-Manuel Miranda Was Almost Cast In One Of Barry Jenkins' Best (And Most Underrated) Films

With the arrival of the first trailer for the "live-action" "Lion King" prequel "Mufasa: The Lion King" came news that the film's music is being spearheaded by Lin-Manuel Miranda. In the aftermath of the smash success of his stage musical "Hamilton" (which was eventually released as a movie on Disney+), Miranda seemed to be the guy in Hollywood, working on music for things like "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," "Moana," "Vivo," and "Encanto," just to name a few, while also physically appearing on screen in "Mary Poppins Returns," "In the Heights," "His Dark Materials," and more. The dude was everywhere, and, as often happens when someone becomes overexposed, a backlash began. His past couple of years have been more subdued, and "Mufasa: The Lion King" marks his return to the familiar arms of The Walt Disney Company.

While it may not be surprising that the guy behind the music of some of Disney's most successful recent hits is coming back to the studio, it is surprising to learn that part of the reason he's returning is because of his relationship with "Mufasa" director Barry Jenkins — a relationship that began several years ago when Jenkins almost cast Miranda in one of the filmmaker's most understated, underrated, heartbreaking, and very best movies: "If Beale Street Could Talk."

According to Empire, Jenkins had "almost cast" Miranda in "Beale Street" and the men had stayed in touch in the ensuing years. When it came time to make "Mufasa" (like "Wicked," this is another musical trying to hide the fact that it's a musical), Jenkins wanted the songs to feel seamlessly woven into the tapestry of the story, and Miranda was the guy to help execute that vision. 

"We wanted to really find a balance of symbiosis between the music and the film," Jenkins said. "Lin really leaned in and tried to find the places that myself and Jeff Nathanson, the writer of the script, had tried to go deeper into the background of some of these characters in this film. He did a really, really wonderful job, and he and I already had something of a rapport."

Despite the backlash, I'm still a fan of Lin-Manuel Miranda. (His excellent feature directorial debut, "tick, tick...BOOM!", was one of my favorite films of 2021.) Still, I'm grateful he was not cast in "If Beale Street Could Talk," a film I consider to be just about flawless. Empire never makes it clear which role Miranda may have been up for, but given the period piece nature of the movie and Jenkins' adherence to realism, it's fair to guess he may have been considered for Pedrocito, a restaurant waiter and friend of one of the protagonists, Fonny (Stephan James). Diego Luna ended up playing that role, and he brought the precisely correct level of charm and warmth to his brief appearance in the movie. It's not that Miranda wouldn't have done a good job — he's a capable actor who I can imagine bringing his own sense of warmth to that character — it's just that Luna was absolutely perfect for that part, and the film would be worse without him playfully interacting with Fonny and smiling at Tish.

The movie also might be a smidge worse because, without Luna, it potentially wouldn't have included one of its most gorgeous shots: Tish and Fonny walking through the rain under an umbrella after they leave the restaurant where Pedrocito works. When I spoke with Barry Jenkins about the movie back in 2018, Jenkins explained how that moment was actually Luna's idea:

"We didn't bring in rain. It just poured rain that day. So there was not meant to be an umbrella. So much of the way we framed that was not meant to be. But even though this movie had more resources than Moonlight, it's still a modest budget, so we had to work with the elements. So it just poured rain that day, so once we got to the setup, it was just like, "What's the best way to film this gorgeous free rain that we have?" It was Diego who was like, "paraguas," which is how you say "umbrella" in Spanish. The whole thing just took on a life of its own [...] To me, when you make a film or any kind of art, you have to be open to inspiration from the elements, from your collaborators."

I'm personally very glad Luna was the person there to offer inspiration that day.