Disney Might Have To Censor The Swearing In Hamilton For The Film Release

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s popular Broadway musical Hamilton is coming to theatres in 2021, and it might feature some changes compared from what those lucky enough to get tickets to the stage play might have experienced. Disney is a family friendly company, focused on all-ages entertainment, which poses a potential problem for Hamilton. The play features multiple instances of the F-word, which would presumably bump it up to an R-rating.

Miranda has now confirmed that the movie version of Hamilton might bleep or mute some words, and he’s OK with that.

“I think we’ll figure it out when we get there,” Miranda told The New York Times. “But we’re not going to cut any sections of the show. If we have to mute a word here or there to reach the largest audience possible, I’m OK with that, because your kids already have the original language memorized. I don’t think we’re depriving anyone of anything if we mute an f-bomb here or there to make our rating.”

NYT reporter Kyle Buchanan said in a tweet that one of the sticking points in the negotiations to sell the Hamilton movie rights came down to language. Bleeping or muting instances of “f**k” appears to be how Disney is tackling the matter.

The US movie ratings body, the Motion Picture Association of America, states that PG-13 movies can say the word “f**k” one time. Anything more and the rating increases to R. That’s something Disney would be keen to avoid, as it does not make R-rated movies (except for the Deadpool franchise, which it inherited from Fox as part of its acquisition).

Disney is said to have paid $75 million USD to buy Hamilton’s movie rights. Unlike Cats, Rent, or Mamma Mia, Hamilton’s movie is a film version of the play recorded during two productions with the original cast in 2016. The $75 million that Disney is said to have paid for the movie is reportedly the highest fee in history that a studio paid for a finished film.

The Hamilton movie comes to theatres in North America on October 15, 2021. Release dates for other parts of the world have not been announced.

The big-screen adaptation will bring back writer and star Miranda as Alexander Hamilton, Daveed Diggs in a dual role as Maarquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson, Renée Elise Goldsberry as Angelica Schuyler, Leslie Odom, Jr. as Aaron Burr, Christopher Jackson as George Washington, Jonathan Groff as King George, Phillipa Soo as Eliza Hamilton, and Jasmine Cephas Jones as Peggy Schuyler and Maria Reynolds, Okieriete Onaodowan as Hercules Mulligan and James Madison, and Anthony Ramos as John Laurens and Philip Hamilton.