‘Beauty and the Beast’ Prequel Show Coming to Disney+

A Beauty and the Beast prequel series is on the way to Disney+, with the show to focus on the characters of Gaston and LeFou. The Hollywood Reporter shares that Luke Evans and Josh Gad will reprise their roles as Gaston and LeFou, respectively, from the 2017 live-action movie for the new show, which will be a limited series.

The series, which is currently untitled, will be a six-episode musical event helmed by Once Upon a Time creators Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz. Composer Alan Menken is also in talks to be a part of the series. According to sources, the project will take place well before the events of Beauty and the Beast and will expand the universe created by the live-action film.

Kitsis and Horowitz will act as showrunners alongside Gad, and Evans, Gad, Kitsis and Horowitz will all executive produce. In addition, Gad, Kitsis and Horowitz will all write scripts for the series, which is currently in the early development stage.

The live-action version of Beauty and the Beast was released in 2017 and also starred Emma Watson as Belle and Dan Stevens as the Beast, both of whom are not scheduled to return in the prequel series. The movie earned over $1 billion at the worldwide box office.

After the news of the prequel was reported, fans reacted on Twitter and the majority were seemingly uninterested in a project centering on Gaston, who is a misogynist with a distinct brand of toxic masculinity.

“Disney: Romance makes women weak! No love anymore! Dead Ben Solo he too bad to live! Bad man die!” one person tweeted. “Also Disney: Let’s give Gaston the most BLATANTLY toxic male villain, who wanted to entrap Belle into a forced marriage by falsely imprisoning her father a fun prequel!”

“Just heard that Disney is planning on doing a prequel series about Gaston and Lefou,” someone else commented. “Gaston is a narcissistic misogynist who doesn’t think that women should read, and who tried to force himself on Belle. He absolutely does NOT deserve a prequel series, and that’s the tea.”

“Just heard they’re making a live action Beauty and the Beast prequel series on Disney+ about Gaston and LeFou,” wrote a third. “List of things I do not want to see and did not in fact ask for: a live action Beauty and the Beast prequel series on Disney+ about Gaston and LeFou.”

Others were more positive about the project.

“The #disneyplus series I didn’t know I needed… until now,” tweeted one fan. “These two were perfection in their roles. I cannot wait to see more of them!”

Someone else joked, “thank god they’re making a Beauty and the Beast prequel series to finally explain who can fight like Gaston.”

Photo Credit: Getty / Stefanie Keenan