Lin-Manuel Miranda Reveals What Was Cut From ‘Hamilton’ to Earn PG-13
UPDATE: In a brief Twitter thread, Lin-Manuel Miranda revealed what had to be changed in Hamilton to earn its PG-13 rating. The original show had 3 F-bombs, and any more than one automatically earns you an R. The one in “Yorktown” is now muted and there’s a record scratch covering the other. The show remains otherwise intact, Miranda says, explaining “you’re getting the whole show.”
ORIGINAL POST: Disney+ prides itself on being a wholesome, family-friendly streaming service. Forget about watching R rated movies; the site barely has any PG-13 content. There’s a couple Marvel and Star Wars movies on there that are PG-13, largely because of their action and violence, some Pirates of the Caribbeans, and a couple of “edgier” PG movies from before the PG-13 rating was invented (like Splash, with its CGI-enhanced butt-covering hair) and that’s really about it. Disney now owns Hulu, and uses that as the streaming home for much of its more adult content.
So it was a little surprising when Disney announced that they had acquired the film version of the beloved Hamilton musical, if only because its language would typically land any “Hamilfilm” in rated-R territory — and Disney doesn’t do rated-R territory. Then things got even more surprising when Disney decided that because of the coronavirus pandemic, they would eschew the movie’s planned theatrical release and instead put the movie directly on Disney+ — where, again, the naughtiest word you’re going to hear in most cases is, like, Goofy hollering “Gawrsh!”
Now that Hamilton is less than two weeks away, we’ve gotten the movie’s trailer, and its rating. According to FilmRatings.com, the MPAA’s official rating director, Hamilton is “Rated PG-13 for language and some suggestive material.” If the movie is a 1:1 adaptation of the stage version, it would almost certainly get an R for language. PG-13 movies are typically only allowed on F-bomb before they automatically get slapped with an R. So it’s not clear what Disney did, but either a very rare exception was made, or something was done to censor or remove the profanity. We’ll find out when the movie premieres on Disney+ on July 3.
Here’s the Hamilton trailer (it doesn’t contain any curse words):
Gallery — Surprising Movies on Disney+: