It’s been quite a week for Disney’s long-rumbling Beauty And The Beast prequel series. The show was announced years ago for Disney+, set to focus on Luke Evans’ Gaston and Josh Gad’s LeFou in the run-up to the 2017 live-action remake of the animated classic, featuring brand new songs by the legendary Alan Menken, and with Respect director Liesl Tommy behind the camera. But just days after it was announced that Rita Ora would be joining the cast of the show, now comes a very different update: the entire project is now on hold.
According to various reports, the indefinite future of the show has arisen due to scheduling conflicts – the need to shoot the series in sunny climes, assemble the busy cast, and get all the creative elements in line resulting in an impossible window to get the job done. Evans and Gad – who were also producers on the series – both tweeted identical messages to mark the show’s halted progress, writing: “Sadly, ‘Tis true. We tried to make it all work but under the gun it wasn’t meant to be… for now. These characters and this story will live on, but sometimes the best intentions & reality collide & nothing can be done.”
But if the future of the show remains up in the air, it seems there’s plenty of desire from those involved to ensure it happens. “We truly hope we get to make it when our schedules allow,” wrote Gad in a follow-up Tweet, though Evans added: “This is a very sad message for us to tweet. We are devastated. Goodbye, for now, from Gaston and Le fou.” Beyond Gad, Evans and Ora, the series was also due to star Briana Middleston, Jelani Alladin, and Hawkeye star Fra Fee. Stay tuned to see if they can get things back on track before the last red rose petal falls…