Award-winning Broadway icon Lea Salonga and actress Liza Soberano are set to lend their voices to DreamWorks Animation’s “Forgotten Island,” an animated comedy-adventure inspired by Philippine mythology.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Manila-born Fil-Canadian actor Manny Jacinto and Filipino-American singer-actress H.E.R. will also be joining the Filipino-studded ensemble alongside Hollywood stars Dave Franco and Jenny Slate.
Lea and Liza have both expressed their excitement for the project on their respective social media pages.
The film will be written and directed by Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado with Universal Pictures slated to release the movie in theaters on September 25, 2026.
According to reports, Forgotten Island follows the story of two lifelong best friends, Jo (voiced by H.E.R.) and Raissa (voiced by Soberano), who find themselves stranded on the magical island of Nakali, a fantastical world rooted in Filipino lore. To return home, the two must face an emotional choice: they can only escape by forgetting each other forever.
Salonga, known for her iconic singing roles in Disney classics such as “Aladdin” and “Mulan”, recently made history as the first Filipino artist to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Soberano, on the other hand, made her Hollywood debut earlier this year in the American horror-comedy film “Lisa Frankenstein” by Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody and first-time feature director Zelda Williams, while Jacinto recently starred in “Freakier Friday”, the sequel to Disney’s 2003 comedy “Freaky Friday”, and “Star Wars” series “The Acolyte”.
Meanwhile, H.E.R., a Grammy and Oscar-winning R&B artist, ventured into acting with her feature film debut in the 2023 musical adaptation of “The Color Purple”. She previously made her animated voice acting debut in a 2022 episode of “Blue’s Clues & You!”.
