Beauty and the Beast Prequel Series Adds Hawkeye Star

Actor Fra Fee earned his breakout role with Disney+'s Hawkeye as Kazi Kazimierczak, with the performer gearing up to star in another Disney+ series, as Variety has confirmed he has joined the cast of the upcoming Beauty and the Beast prequel series. Fee is set to play Prince Benoit Berlioz, who the outlet describes as "a childhood friend of Tilly's who has grown into a handsome, charismatic, confident prince." Fee joins the previously announced Luke Evans and Josh Gad, who reprise their roles of Gaston and LeFou from that film. Briana Middleton plays Tilly, the stepsister of LeFou. The series doesn't yet have a release date on Disney+.

Gad, Edward Kitsis, and Adam Horowitz all serve as co-showrunners on the series, with Liesl Tommy set to direct the first episode while Alan Menken will craft the series' soundtrack. The show will center on Gaston, LeFou, and Tilly as they unite for an adventure following a revelation from Tilly's past.

This latest casting report confirms recent comments Gad made about the status of the series, in that casting is moving forward after the series was initially announced back in June.

"We're still planning on shooting this spring and the scripts are incredible, the music is unbelievable, all-new songs by Alan Menken, we're casting now," Gad previously confirmed with ComicBook.com.

The 2017 live-action Beauty and the Beast adaptation was a major financial success, with Evans and Gad's on-screen chemistry resulting in the development of this series. Interestingly, director of that film Bill Condon had made it clear that LeFou's obsession with Gaston was more romantic in nature than seen in the original film, yet the theatrically released story failed to directly confirm these elements of the character. Gad previously detailed how the series will handle those elements of this version of the character.

"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 confirmed to 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."  

Stay tuned for details on the Beauty and the Beast prequel series.

Are you excited for the series? Let us know in the comments below!