Beauty and the Beast: Luke Evans Says Prequel Series Is Not Dead
There might still be hope for Disney+'s Beauty and the Beast prequel series. In February of this year, reports had indicated that the series was being stalled by behind-the-scenes creative issues and delays with the series' scripts and original music, seemingly indicating that it would not be moving forward at all. In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Gaston actor Luke Evans confirmed that that is not the case, and that the series is just "put on hold' to make sure that it can creatively be approached in the right way. The series would star Evans alongside Josh Gad as LeFou, and explore the pair's origin story.
"It's been put on hold," Evans explained. "We just wanna make sure that it is absolutely the best it can be, and if that means we just have to wait a little longer to finesse certain pieces of it, then that's what we're going to do because this is a very important legacy. We want to honor these characters with the best story we can possibly deliver. It's just on hold. It is gonna happen. We're very excited about it. At some point in the near future, it will happen."
"We came up with the idea of, what would it be like to delve into the past of Gaston and LeFou and how they met and who they were and why they became the people that we meet in the movie that we all know and love? That opened up several cans of worms," Evans added. "To navigate a story of those two people and also new characters, and then bring them right up to the moment where you meet them in the movie has been a thrilling experience. There's a lot of ways it could go. So that's where we have been so far and where we hopefully will go to in the future."
The series would also star Briana Middleton (The Tender Bar) as Tilly, LeFou's step-sister; Fra Fee (Marvel's Hawkeye) as the charismatic Prince Benoit Berlioz; and Jelani Alladin (The Walking Dead: World Beyond) as the cool and quick-witted artist Jean-Michel. Rita Ora had been cast in the series in a currently-unknown role just days before the creative differences were made public.
What do you think of the Beauty and the Beast series not being dead at Disney+? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!