Beauty and the Beast Prequel Series Aims to Shoot This Spring

Back in 2017, director Bill Condon brought to life the Disney classic Beauty and the Beast, which earned enough excitement and acclaim to inspire an upcoming prequel series on Disney+ focusing on Gaston and LeFou. Since the project got greenlit last summer, most details about the project have been kept under wraps, with LeFou actor Josh Gad recently confirming that the project aims to start shooting in the coming months. So long as production moves forward as scheduled, we could potentially expect the series to debut sometime in early 2023 on the streamer, with it also being possible that the coronavirus pandemic could slow or postpone the project’s development. 

“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 confirmed with ComicBook.com while promoting his new Peacock series Wolf Like Me.

Ahead of the premiere of Beauty and the Beast, fans were excited that Condon confirmed this take on LeFou was gay and his infatuation with Gaston was a bit more than platonic, though the actual film failed to directly address these details about his identity. Gad did, however, previously confirm that the upcoming prequel series aims to deal with those elements of the character a bit more explicitly.

“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.”

As we wait for more details on the prequel series, fans can see Gad in Wolf Like Me.

Created and written by Abe Forsythe, Wolf Like Me is described, “Everyone brings their own set of baggage to a new relationship. Gary (Josh Gad) and Mary (Isla Fisher) are no different. Gary is an emotional wreck and struggles to provide for his daughter since the death of his wife. Mary has a secret she can’t bring herself to share with anyone. The universe brought these two together for a reason, they just need to keep following the signs.”

Stay tuned for details on the Beauty and the Beast prequel series. Wolf Like Me premieres on Peacock on January 13th.  

Are you looking forward to the new series? Let us know in the comments below!