Lin-Manuel Miranda talks about new songs for live-action remake of 'The Little Mermaid'

Washington [US], February 20 : Actor and filmmaker Lin-Manuel Miranda has promised the new songs featured in Disney's live-action version of The Little Mermaid won't replace any of the classics.
The 42-year-old actor, who has collaborated with composer Alan Menken on the film, opened up about the songs that will be featured in the forthcoming remake during a conversation on Variety's podcast.
"Alan will tell you if he does not like something. He's a very like heart and opinion on sleeve guy. ... He's scoring it as well, along with the songs, just as he did with the original," Miranda said of Menken.
Noting that he "won't see a rough cut for another month or a couple of months," Miranda said Menken's own excitement makes him excited to see the film.
"We wrote three or four original tunes, replacing none of the ones you like. All of those are in," Miranda added of the classic songs, including 'Under the Sea' and 'Part of Your World'.
He added, "There's no bigger Little Mermaid fan than me. But we found a couple of opportunities for some other music that I can't wait to see. I'm in the dark as anyone else, honestly."
Of the new songs, Miranda said that Halle Bailey's Ariel will sing a track in the second half of the film when she loses her voice and becomes a human.
"[Director] Rob [Marshall] found a creative way to hear from Ariel, even though she is sans voice for a little while. We wrote some music [for] her time on land. She experiences a lot of firsts, as someone with legs for the first time, so we got to lean into all of that musically," Miranda explained.
As for other original tunes, Miranda told the outlet that viewers shouldn't expect anything new from Melissa McCarthy's Ursula, though he didn't rule out that his 'Hamilton' costar Daveed Diggs would rap as Sebastian.
Disney had announced in July 2019 that Bailey, one-half of the musical sister duo Chloe x Halle, would be taking on the role of Ariel.
Bailey announced the completion of filming in an Instagram post in September by sharing a photo of herself sitting in the ocean at sunset.
As per People magazine, the forthcoming film also stars other big names in Hollywood, including Javier Bardem as King Triton, Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric, Jacob Tremblay as Flounder, and Awkwafina as Scuttle.