'Beauty and The Beast' Star Criticizes Disney Over Handling of 'Gay Moment' Following Prequel's Cancellation
Josh Gad, whose efforts to make a Disney+ series centered on the Beauty and the Beast characters Gaston and LeFou hit a snag after Disney shut down production, took aim at the studio for promoting LeFou as the studio's "first" gay character. When the film was released in 2017, director Bill Condon said the character was at the center of Disney's first "exclusively gay moment." However, instead of being met with celebration, the studio was criticized for barely recognizing the character's sexuality in the final film.
In the live-action Beauty and the Beast, the "exclusively gay moment" turned out to just be LeFou dancing with a man in a big crowd scene. There were no other references to his sexuality. Disney has been criticized for not including LGBTQ+ characters in their blockbusters. When they do, it seems to be the bare minimum, like two female background characters kissing in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker or director Joe Russo's minor character referencing a date with another man in an Avengers: Endgame scene. In an interview with The Independent, Gad agrees that Disney didn't do enough to warrant praise for making LeFou a gay character.
"We didn't go far enough to warrant accolades," the Wolf Like Me actor said. "We didn't go far enough to say, 'Look how brave we are.' My regret in what happened is that it became 'Disney's first explicitly gay moment' and it was never intended to be that."
Gad later said he didn't think the studio "did justice to what a real gay character in a Disney film should be," adding, "That was not LeFou. If we're going to pat ourselves on the back, then damn it we should have gone further with that. Everybody deserves an opportunity to see themselves on screen, and I don't think we've done enough – and I certainly haven't done enough to do that."
Gad is also the voice of the snowman Olaf in the Frozen movies. Many fans have hoped Elsa would be revealed to be gay, but that hasn't happened yet. "The beauty of Elsa is she's a vessel for all sorts of people to reflect themselves, er, back at her," Gad told The Independent.
Gad's latest comments about LeFou come after the news that the long-gestating Disney+ series about LeFou and Gaston was being put on hold indefinitely. It's unclear if the show will even get made at this point. Luke Evans was set to play Gaston again. The series was set to run six episodes, with Once Upon a Time duo Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz as showrunners alongside Gad. Singer Rita Ora was cast as a new character.
"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," Gad tweeted on Feb. 10. "But... we truly hope we get to make it when our schedules allow."