When Weird Al Yankovic thinks your demigod’s hair looks like his, and that’s not what you were going for, that’s not a great sign. The legendary artist wasn’t the only one who found Dwayne Johnson’s Maui wig in the new live-action Moana trailer less than convincing, either. Plenty of people also mocked those long flowing follicles. Despite the reaction, though, Disney reportedly has no plans to change it before the film hits theaters this summer.
And you know what? That’s actually totally fine! We’re not even sure Maui’s locks are a problem. But there is a much bigger issue we hope to see fixed before seeing the film.
Variety‘s sources say that even though Johnson’s wig earned plenty of mockery online following the release of the latest live-action Moana trailer, Disney isn’t going to make any major changes before it premieres. This is the human Maui we’re getting.
I might be in the minority on this, but when it comes to Johnson’s wig I’m not sure it actually is a problem. For one, it’s a real wig the actor said took a long time to apply every day. Between his hair and a 40-pound prosthetic bodysuit, it took him 2.5 hours to get ready to shoot every day.
Now, that doesn’t mean it looks good. It simply looks strange. For now. Dwayne Johnson looks so much like Dwayne Johnson all the time that “The Rock with hair” is just not a concept* the human mind can easily accept. We need time to get used to it. We probably will.
*This wasn’t an issue in The Smashing Machine because facial prosthetics made him look less like Dwayne Johnson. He just looks like himself in Moana. Himself with hair.
The much, much, much bigger problem with Moana is that everything else looks pretty blah/bland/bad. Despite filming a lot of the movie on location in Hawaii, one of the most beautiful places in the world, the film looks dark and saturated. The green screen elements filmed in Atlanta look even worse. As we noted in our instant reaction to the trailer’s release, this story takes place in one of the most gorgeous settings in Disney movie history. You’d have no idea that’s true from this live-action remake. And we’re not the only ones who have noticed.
Disney hasn’t “locked” Moana 2026 yet. So there’s still time for the studio to add the color back to this story. Hopefully it does. Maui’s hair won’t be a problem if we see flowing against a beautiful South Pacific backdrop instead of looking like he’s in a poorly lit basement.