Hercules Producers the Russo Brothers Tease New Disney Cinematic Universe

Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo have been spearheading an effort to bring Disney’s animated Hercules to life in live-action form for a few months now and if their latest update on the project is any indication it’s something that Disney intends to develop beyond just one movie. Speaking in a new interview with the Lights Camera Barstool podcast (H/T The Disinsider) Joe Russo offered an update saying: “It is still in development, the script is about to come in a week. We’ve taken a lot of time and care with it. They want to see something really cool that they wanna get lost in it for a decade, so that’s our mission is to provide them with that experience.”

This specific quote shouldn’t really surprise anyone that has been looking at how Disney’s plans for their live-action movies has expanded in recent years. Disney’s Aladdin in 2019 became a billion dollar grosser and has subsequently spawned development on a proper sequel, a live-action prequel film, and a Disney+ spin-off movie focusing on Billy Magnussen’s Prince Anders. 2017’s Beauty and the Beast also has a prequel series in development while 2019’s The Lion King has a sequel inspired by The Godfather Part II in the works.

To that end, it makes sense that Disney would want to take the Hercules property and spin an entire franchise worth of stories out of one movie, should it prove to be successful. This also proves why they hired the Russo brothers, whose work in the MCU has been some of the biggest stepping stones for that entire franchise. Captain America: Civil War built bridges that lead to Spider-Man: Homecoming, Black Panther, and the upcoming The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, not to mention their Avengers movies that have had similar influence.

Much like their Marvel work though, don’t expect this movie to be a direct translation of its source material as the pair revealed to Collider last year.

“I think you always have to bring something new to the table because from our perspective as storytellers, it’s not compelling for us to do a literal translation. We’ve already done that with our Marvel films,” Anthony said. “We don’t do literal translations of the comics because we feel like if you want that story you can go read that story. We’re going to give you a different story. I think we’ll do something that’s in the vein of the original and inspired by it, but we also bring some new elements to the table.”

Disney has not set a release date for Hercules but check back here for further updates as we learn them.