Hamilton is coming to Disney+ Hotstar this July. This is big news, because it was originally headed for cinemas globally in October 2021. Star, writer, lyricist, and composer Lin-Manuel Miranda announced Tuesday that the recorded version of his 2015 Broadway musical of the same name is coming to Disney’s streaming service on July 3. That’s in less than two months, in time for US Independence Day on July 4. It’s fitting because Hamilton is the story of Alexander Hamilton (played by Miranda), one of the founding fathers of the United States of America.
This news was confirmed by Disney+ with a tweet of its own.
Inspired by Ron Chernow’s 2004 biography “Alexander Hamilton”, Miranda created the stage musical while drawing heavily from hip-hop. Hamilton premièred Off-Broadway in early 2015, won several awards, and moved to Broadway — that’s the theatre district in New York City — where it was an instant hit. It would go on to set records at the Tony Awards — the stage equivalent of the Oscars — and win a Pulitzer Prize. Since then, it has resulted in productions in Chicago and London’s West End, with the original cast touring the US twice. The Disney+ version is with the original cast from 2016.
The arrival of Hamilton on Disney+ Hotstar is good news for fans of stage musicals and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Theatres, including those on Broadway, remain shut due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic has also delayed another Miranda musical, In the Heights, which was set to receive a film adaptation originally in June this year, but has now been pushed back a year to June 2021. Think of Hamilton‘s Disney+ release as a replacement, if you will.
And for Disney, this continues its proactive approach to serving stuck-at-home audiences with new content earlier than expected. All of Frozen 2, the Pixar film Onward, and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker were made available for streaming several months prior to their slated release dates. And while the likes of Universal Pictures (Trolls World Tour) and Warner Bros. (Scoob!) have decided to take films directly to video-on-demand — though not in India — Disney announced that its Artemis Fowl is going straight to Disney+ Hotstar on June 12.
Hamilton, out July 3 on Disney+ Hotstar, will be the second Disney release to skip cinemas entirely.
Can Netflix force Bollywood to reinvent itself? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS. You can also download the episode or just hit the play button below.
