A ‘Beauty and the Beast’ Prequel Series Is Coming to Disney Plus
Ever wanted to know more about Gaston and LeFou? Well, too bad; you’re going to get it anyway.
That’s because according to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney+ is currently in “the early development stage” on a television series spun off from — and a prequel to — Disney’s 2017 live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast. The show would reteam Luke Evans as Gaston and Josh Gad as LeFou for a “six-episode musical event.”
More, from THR:
...composer Alan Menken [is] in talks to return as well. Sources say the project, which is currently in the early development stage, will take place well before the events of the film and also expand the Beauty and the Beast universe. No other stars from the film — like Emma Watson and Dan Stevens — are currently attached, though sources say there is a possibility that they could pop in for a guest spot.
In the run-up to Beauty and the Beast’s release, Gaston and LeFou got some attention when director Bill Condon claimed that LeFou was Disney’s first openly gay character, and would have an “exclusively gay moment” moment in the film. That really amounted to very little, to the point where the phrase “exclusively gay moments” has become a shorthand for films that make extremely brief and vague gestures in the general direction of LGBTQ representation without actually delivering anything significant. Theoretically, this show could correct that? Given how this all turned out for Beauty and the Beast, I wouldn’t hold my breath about that.
This prequel show is being created by Once Upon a Time’s Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz. They had been working with Gad on a Muppets series that was intended for Disney+ but never got off the ground. THR says when that show fell apart, they began working on this idea instead.
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