Credit: DisneyDisney’s plans for Beauty and the Beast have seemingly been put on indefinite hold.
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Over the last decade, The Walt Disney Company has embraced recreating its animated stories in live-action form. This not only modernizes classic films for newer generations to enjoy but allows Disney to dip into a deep well rich with already-established characters, stories, and music.
Disney’s obsession with live-action remakes can be traced back to 2010’s Alice in Wonderland. Although the film did not entirely wow critics, it managed to scoop up over $1 billion at the box office, all but confirming that more of these types of films were on the way.
Fast-forward to 2024, and Disney is still heavily involved in retelling its most beloved stories in the live-action medium. One of the company’s most recent releases, The Little Mermaid (2023), was a hit with both fans and the box office, and several more projects are seemingly in the works.
Disney is set to release its live-action version of Snow White next year, starring Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot. This release has proven to be one of the more controversial films from The Walt Disney Company in recent years, primarily due to Zegler’s comments regarding the original animated film.
In 2017, Disney’s live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast was released and became a major success. Following its success, Disney announced a spinoff was in development. However, close to seven years later, one of the stars of this proposed spinoff has some disappointing news.
Beauty and the Beast Franchise On Hold
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Luke Evans played Gaston in Disney’s revamped Beauty and the Beast and was set to star in the company’s planned spinoff series alongside Josh Gad, who played LeFou. The project was announced as a Disney+ original series and would seemingly see the two characters embark on adventures not seen in Disney’s original animated or live-action versions of Beauty and the Beast.
“There are so many things about these two characters that we don’t really know about their origin stories,” Evans said in an update on the project from 2022.
“Were they always these creatures or were they different? It’s a bit like, no one’s born bad. Things happen, you make wrong decisions, or you choose to make a decision that affects the rest of your life. I think that was where we were going with the idea and concept. So I hope one day soon we will be able to deliver that story for you guys.”
However, Evans’ most recent comments seem to signal the project has been halted, either temporarily or permanently.
According to Evans himself, the planned Beauty and the Beast spinoff starring Gaston and LeFou is “sadly not on the table” anymore, per Out.
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In previous interviews about the project, Evans had discussed how new and exciting the series was, explaining that the creators wanted to “honor” the characters with “the best story we can possibly deliver.”
It’s unknown if the project will get picked back up off the ground, but for now, Disney’s plans for its live-action Beauty and the Beast franchise seem dead in the water.
This news comes after Billy Magnussen, star of Disney’s live-action Aladdin (2019), shared more information regarding his proposed Disney+ spin-off.
Magnussen played the original character Prince Anders in Disney’s live-action Aladdin, with Disney beginning work on a Disney+ spinoff shortly after the release of the film.
Do you enjoy Disney’s live-action remakes? What’s your favorite classic Disney movie?