A 'Beauty and the Beast' Prequel Is In the Works at Disney+. Here's Everything We Know
A tale as old as time, indeed. If you’ve been thinking you need more Beauty and the Beast in your life, Disney+ has you covered.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, a prequel series is in the works starring Josh Gad and Luke Evans, who will be reprising their roles as LeFou and Gaston from the wildly popular 2017 live-action Beauty and the Beast remake directed by Bill Condon.
Not many details are known at the moment (it doesn’t even have a title), but the limited series is supposedly going to be a six-episode musical event from Once Upon a Time creators Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz. Gad will also serve as a co-creator, writer, and producer.
Here’s everything we know so far about the Beauty and the Beast prequel series.
The cast. As mentioned, Gad and Evans will return as LeFou and Gaston. No word yet on whether Emma Watson or Dan Stephens will make appearances as Belle and the Beast, respectively.
The music. THR reports that talks are underway with composer Alan Menken, who also did the score for the 2017 film.
The length. While six episodes have been confirmed, there’s no more information on episode length.
The plot. Since the project is still in the early stages of development, we don’t know much about the storylines—other than that they will follow LeFou and Gaston’s adventures prior to the action in the 2017 film. One thing that could be interesting to explore is LeFou’s sexuality, which was implied in the film’s “exclusively gay moment” which was…pretty much nothing.
Condon previously explained in a now-deleted interview with Attitude that LeFou would be Disney‘s first gay character. “LeFou is somebody who on one day wants to be Gaston and on another day wants to kiss Gaston,” he reportedly said. “He’s confused about what he wants. It’s somebody who’s just realizing that he has these feelings. And Josh makes something really subtle and delicious out of it.”
Not so much, but maybe Gad will actually get a chance to delve deeper in the prequel series. However, if the news about the Love, Simon and Lizzie McGuire series are anything to go by, then maybe not.
Check back for more updates on the Beauty and the Beast prequel series.