Beauty and the Beast Prequel series possibly headed to Disney+
By Louis Skye
Beauty and the Beast is set to get a prequel series featuring LeFou and Gaston. Read on for more details.
Disney fans have reason to be excited—2017’s Beauty and the Beast might be getting a prequel series soon. The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that the Disney+ limited series is in the very early stages of production and will be headlined by Josh Gad and Luke Evans, who will be reprising their roles as LeFou and Gaston, respectively.
The show will be developed, executive produced and written by Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, creators of the popular fairytale-inspired Once Upon a Time. Gad will also be joining the writers’ room for the series and will serve as executive producer, alongside Evans.
This prequel series will serve as an origin story for the Beauty and the Beast characters, but there is as yet no confirmation whether any other characters—such as Belle or Beast—will appear. Rumour has it that some familiar faces from the film might guest star in episodes, however.
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Kitsis, Horowitz, and Gad have collaborated before on the canceled Muppets Live Another Day series that was also meant for Disney+. The idea for this new series appears to have been developed at the time.
LeFou was touted as one of the first openly gay characters in Disney films—the marketing hyped up LeFou’s sexuality but the final film focused more on the subtext of LeFou’s unrequited love for Gaston, which many felt could be construed as hero worship.
A blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment of LeFou dancing with a man at the end of the film was the only obvious nod to his sexuality. Despite backlash from the LGBTQ+ community at the lack of representation, Disney repeated the stunt with 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
But the announcement of this prequel comes as a particular surprise considering Disney+ recently announced that it was pulling the Love, Simon show from the platform for being too graphic. One wonders what the content of the Beauty and the Beast prequel is going to be.
A number of Disney’s film properties have moved to the streaming service—The Mandalorian from the Star Wars universe received a great deal of praise recently, and a massive roster of Marvel shows are slated to release starting 2020, alongside Pixar properties.
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If this prequel series goes through, it could open the door to characters from other Disney films getting their own shows. This is news that fans will be following very closely.
Disney+ is available in the United States of America.