Dwayne Johnson
Hollywood

Dwayne Johnson Reveals The Inspiration Behind ‘Moana’!

Cine Reporter

Dwayne Johnson was visibly emotional at the #Moana live-action film presentation at CinemaCon 2026. In a video he shared on his social media over the weekend, Johnson revealed his character in the film — Maui — is inspired by his grandfather. He shared that his grandfather passed away when Johnson was just 10 years old. However, he was extremely close to him. The actor shared a picture of his grandfather and described him as a ‘big’ and ‘powerful’ man.

“As many of you know, and maybe some of you may not know, but the character of Maui was deeply inspired by my grandfather, the High Chief Peter Malavia. He’s walking in the clouds now. He passed away when I was 10 years old. We were close. And I guess the closest you could be is a 10-year-old kid. This is my grandfather. He inspired the character of Maui. He’d be very proud right now,” he said in the video.

“I mean, it wasn’t just like his hair and his tattoos, and he was a big man, and he was so powerful. He was so charismatic, and all the things that Maui is, and he loved to sing. My grandfather loved to sing with his ukulele; he would play a tough guy, too as well. He had a wicked sense of humour, one-of-a-kind spirit. He loved to sing, ‘My way’ that was one of his favourites, you know, and ‘I left my heart in San Francisco’. But you know the spirit and the mana found its way into Maui about ten years ago when I gave him that emotion and I do feel such deep connection and pride and gratitude channelling my late grandfather on screen and so when you guys sese moana and you see embodying Maui in this live action version and I m so excited to show you guys and show the world I think every word, yeah every lyric that he sings, every chee hoo, that’s my grandfather, so this is for you, high chief,” Johnson shared.

The actor shared the video along with a special note in which he said he missed his grandfather a lot. Check out the link below:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXSs10kj1Qy/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

Produced by Walt Disney Studios, Moana is set to release in theatres in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu on 10th July, 2026.

By Keerti Kadam