‘Hamilton’ Fans Are Nervous About Disney+ Censoring Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Musical

Ass. Sh*t. Motherf*ckin’.

As far as curse words go, these are pretty tame (uh, most of them), but they might be too much for Disney+. Earlier today, Disney announced that Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony/Emmy/Pulitzer Prize/everything-winning musical, will be coming to the company’s streaming service much sooner than expected, on July 3. “No other artistic work in the last decade has had the cultural impact of Hamilton,” Disney chairman Bob Iger (not to be confused with the other Disney Bob) said in a statement, although he failed to answer a question many have about Hamilton under Mickey’s umbrella: will it be censored?

Disney+, like Disney itself, bills itself as the “family-friendly content” alternative to that smut on Netflix. It’s why Love, Victor, a spin-off of Love, Simon, a romantic comedy about a gay teen, was moved from Disney+ to Hulu (also a Disney property), and why Splash was edited with “digital fur technology” and why “this is f*cked up” from Free Solo has been replaced with “this is messed up.” (The most risqué thing on the streaming service might be Brendan Fraser “almost” showing his butt in 1997’s George of the Jungle. Not exactly pearl-clutching material there.) But while Disney+ is cool with PG-13 swears, like Morgan Stark repeating her dad Tony’s “sh*t” in Avengers: Endgame, what about the occasional f-bomb (or “cuckold” or “whore”) in Hamilton? PG-13 movies are allowed one “f*ck,” after all, according to the Motion Picture Association of America.

When asked by New York Times reporter Kyle Buchanan about Disney+’s PG-13 and under mandate back in February, Lin-Manuel Miranda replied, “I think we’ll figure it out when we get there, 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.”

There’s understandable nervousness among fans over the censorship, but Lin-Manuel Miranda is not going to throw away his shot at letting people watch Hamilton on Disney+ over a few measly swears (the $75 million payday didn’t hurt, either).

https://twitter.com/robisonwells/status/1260216035291979777

https://twitter.com/HuckelCommaSean/status/1260184269739212804

https://twitter.com/pcterspidey/status/1260191376550969348

Hamilton hits Disney+ on July 3.