Beauty and the Beast Prequel Star Josh Gad Addresses LeFou’s Sexuality in New Series

Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast remake made headlines when director Bill Condon revealed that the character of LeFou, played by Josh Gad, would be gay in the film. There were even more headlines when the final product never actually addressed LeFou’s sexuality at all, simply hinting that he was in love with Gaston and showing a glimpse of him dancing with a man at a party in the movie’s final minutes. Now, Disney is filming a prequel series about LeFou and Gaston, and fans are wondering if the sidekick’s sexuality will actually be dealt with this time around.

Gad, who is producing and starring in the new series, recently appeared on the Just for Variety podcast and talked a bit about his experience with LeFou’s story. When asked directly about the character’s journey with his sexuality, Gad was pretty cryptic about what’s to come.

“You’re going to have to tune in when this show airs to see what we’re working up, but in the process of working on it, we’re asking ourselves every relevant question about these characters and endeavoring to do right by them and by this world,” Gad told Variety. “I think that we have origin stories here that are unbelievably exciting because they’re unexpected. And I think ‘expect the unexpected’ is all I can really say. And not just with regard to LeFou and Gaston but to a lot of the new characters that we’re introducing.”

On one hand, it can be frustrating for the team behind the project continue to talk around a point they made back before the movie came out, making it seem as though they’re comfortable having said LeFou was gay without having anything really inclusive on-screen. On the other hand, however, setting a precedent ahead of time is part of the issue with LeFou in the first place. It was the same scenario facing Joe and Anthony Russo heading into Avengers: Endgame, when they proclaimed that the film would feature the first gay character on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, only to have an unnamed character played by one of the directors mention going on a date with a man.

By just letting the show speak for itself, Gad has the potential to maybe make a bigger impact with LeFou this time around.

Are you looking forward to the Beauty and the Beast prequel series on Disney+? Let us know in the comments!