DVDizzy.com

Though Miranda's work on Moana was only announced last summer, he secretly spent years on the project: Indeed, Disney chief creative officer John Lasseter and Moana directors John Musker and Ron Clements hired him before Hamilton became a hit. All involved are keen to continue the collaboration, and when Miranda sat down with Vulture yesterday, he divulged that he's now collaborating with Zootopia co-director Byron Howard on a new animated film they are building from the ground up.

"That's the fun thing about working with someone and having it go well — you go, 'Okay, what else can we do?'" Miranda told Vulture. "Lasseter took me aside and said, 'I have an idea: Here's Byron, and you guys should start talking.'" Though he was excited, Miranda couldn't say much else about the project, except to caution that it could take years to bear fruit, given the glacial pace of animated production. "We literally haven't gotten in the room yet," he said, "but we're plotting."

I thought Byron would be busy developing Zootopia 2. I guess this means a sequel has yet to be put into active development. I'm guessing they'll do it in 2018, after Rich Moore finishes production on Wreck-It Ralph 2. Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee were also working on a new movie but when the studio announced Frozen 2, they had to drop it to focus on the sequel.

Currently working on secret musical things.

Currently working on secret things I can't talk about...yet.

Byron Howard: With Jared Bush and Michael Hebert deep in Disney's Animation Research Library... doing research!

Q: I hope you're doing research for you know what. [Zootopia 2]

Byron Howard: Nope.

With Jared Bush and Fox Carney at Disney’s Animation Research Library...Actual The Jungle Book backgrounds!

Doing a little research at Disney archives with Byron Howard and figured... since we’re here we might as well weasel a look at some original art from Jungle Book because it’s the first animated movie I ever saw.