Anthony Ramos Reflects On Hamilton’s ‘Superhero’ Cast And Why He Still Can’t Believe He’s In The Disney+ Musical

Anthony Ramos as John Laurens in Hamilton
(Image credit: (Disney))
(Image credit: (Disney))

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One of the biggest movie events of the summer turned out to be a gift from Disney+, as Hamilton was released exclusively to the streaming service. The filmed stage performance is a unique experience because it immortalized the original cast’s specific star quality ahead of many of them forwarding their careers since on Broadway in movies, television and with their own music.

Anthony Ramos, who played John Laurens and Hamilton’s son Philip in the musical, shared his reaction to watching Hamilton at home with these words:

I just saw it two days ago, and I was just blown away by just my cast members, my friends. It’s just like watching a group of superheroes and you just can’t believe you even have all their numbers. Like, ‘Wow I can’t believe I have the phone number to Superman. I can’t believe I have Batman’s number. I have Wonder Woman’s number.’ That’s how it felt watching them.

He’s not far off; the original Hamilton cast is pretty much the Justice League of Broadway these days. Since Lin-Manuel Miranda’s rap musical about the life of Alexander Hamilton hit the stage years ago, it has been the talk of the town. Even four years after Lin-Manuel Miranda left his role in Hamilton to pursue work with Disney, it's still the hottest ticket, with prices sometimes soaring into the thousands for a single seat.

As Anthony Ramos told 102.7 KIIS FM, when he watched the Disney+ version of Hamilton, he was so blown away by his co-stars that he likened them to larger-than-life superheroes. He said he noticed a ton of facial expressions, vocals and such that the cast members did that he could not appreciate while he was on stage. Four years after he left his roles, he felt like he could take in how special the musical really is.

Since he left the show in 2016, Anthony Ramos has been strapped to a pretty non-stop career in Hollywood. He guest starred in Will and Grace and found roles in Monsters and Men, A Star is Born, She’s Gotta Have It, Godzilla: King of Monsters and Trolls World Tour. He released an album in 2019 called The Good & The Bad, and is set to play the lead in the big-screen adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s first musical In the Heights.

Anthony Ramos is also engaged to his Hamilton co-star Jasmine Cephas Jones, who played Peggy Schuyler and Maria Reynolds in the show, and just nabbed an Emmy nomination for her role in #FreeRayshawn. The talent shared the company of the likes of Mindhunter and Frozen’s Jonathan Groff, Leslie Odom Jr, Snowpiercer’s Daveed Diggs and Phillipa Soo, whose Eliza Hamilton has kickstarted a more widespread conversation about her end gasp. Superheroes indeed.

Hamilton is currently available to stream on Disney+, so grab your subscription here and mark your calendars for In The Heights hitting theaters on June 18, 2021.

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.