Moana 2 directors 'never' considered making a love interest for sequel

Watch: Moana 2's creative team share why the princess didn't need a love interest once again

Back in 2016, when Disney’s Moana, an animated film set in the idyllic islands of ancient Polynesia, first sailed into our lives on a wooden canoe, it was a landmark moment for many reasons. Not only did it introduce us to the iconic studio’s first Polynesian princess (although it makes clear she’s not actually a princess), but it also gave us an independent female lead who had no love interest.

The story followed Moana, the headstrong 16-year-old (voiced by then-16-year-old newcomer Auli’i Cravalho) daughter of a Pacific Island chief who wants nothing more than to follow in her ancestor’s footsteps and traverse the ocean. With learning the ropes of wayfinding, saving her people from starving out and befriending a demi-god named Maui (Dwayne Johnson), there really wasn’t any time for Moana to catch feelings.

Now, eight years on, we’re back with Moana for the film’s highly-anticipated sequel, Moana 2, and while the story might have moved on three years, our wave-travelling warrior still has love low on the priorities.

“I don't know that I've ever had a conversation in the creative process about whether or not to give her a true love interest,” director Dana Ledoux Miller, who helmed the film alongside Jason Hand and David Derrick Jr., tells Yahoo UK.

“I think what's exciting about Moana is she is just such a fiercely independent, badass adventurer who is so focused on being a leader and doing the best for her people that it seemed a natural extension to only build on that for this film,” she added.

In Moana 2, Moana is back on her boat as she embarks on another treacherous mission to save her people from a vengeful god. As well as re-teaming with Johnson’s Maui, she also brings along another cast of characters for the journey.

There’s Loto (Rose Matafeo), a boisterous ship engineer, Kele (David Fane), a grumpy farmer and Moni (Hualalai Chung), the keeper of her people’s history who you feel, at least at the start, could be a potential love interest. It turns out he’s far more interested in being Maui’s best friend by the end!

“[Moana’s love story is] her deep friendships,” says Miller. “I think what's really great about this film is we take her friendship with Maui to a different level. They both came to care about each other as friends in the first film. And when you care about someone and you're in a dangerous situation and the stakes are high, you become vulnerable in a way that you wouldn't be if you didn't care so deeply."

In the canon of Disney princess movies, very few lead female characters have cut to the credits without a hint of some romance. 2012’s Brave, starring Kelly Macdonald as a Scottish clan heiress, made history as the first traditional Disney princess to not have a love interest. By the time Moana came around a few years later, there seemed to be more appetite for stories not centred around locking down a prince.

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Back in 2016, Cravalho said “The journey that Moana goes on—of self-discovery—doesn't need a love interest. Finding yourself is something you do all on your own and it's for you—not for anyone else,” adding “I think Disney movies are reflective of their time. And in this day and age, what we need is heroes and heroines of our own story.”

Now, at 24 years old and 10 years on from first being cast as Moana, Cravalho says she still thinks the most interesting aspect of Moana is how she’s on the relatable path of self-discovery that comes with being a newly-minted adult.

“What we find is that life actually takes [you] on hard left turns, loop-de-loops all the way around, 360s, 180s, to realise that the journey will be longer and wackier and stranger than you could have ever imagined,” she says.

Cravalho adds, relating Moana’s desire for control to her own experiences, “In fact, life is a lot more fun when you let life just happen.”

Moana 2 is out in cinemas now.