Eight years ago, Disney released its live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast, starring Emma Watson as Belle, Dan Stevens as the Beast/Prince, and Luke Evans as Gaston. It remains one of Disney’s most financially successful movies with its $1.26 billion haul, and there were several attempts made to keep this continuity going, none of which worked out. Now word’s come in that Gaston is getting his own movie, and the Mouse House reported approach to this project has left me confused.
According to Deadline, Dave Callaham has been tapped to write the script for this Gason-focused picture, with Kate Herron and Briony Redman having penned a previous draft. Michelle Rejwan is producing the project, but no director has been hired yet. Now here’s where things get weird. Luke Evans will not reprise Gaston, as was going to be the case in that scrapped Gaston and LeFou prequel series. Instead, this in-development movie will focus on a “new and original” version of the character in a story that has “swashbuckling” tones to it.
So from the sound of it, this Gaston movie won’t be connected at all to 2017’s Beauty and the Beast, which strikes me as a strange choice. Yes, it’s been almost a decade since that movie came out, and just like in the 1991 animated original, Gaston perished while attempting to kill the Beast. Still, that take on Beauty and the Beast got decent enough critical reception, and Luke Evans is popular enough, that Disney would have better luck sticking with that version of the character, even if that requires sticking with the prequel format.
More importantly, by attempting to clean up Gaston’s image like this, isn’t Disney taking away nearly everything that defines him from Beauty and the Beast? He works excellently as an antagonist in that story because he’s so closed-minded, arrogant and vain. If you turn him into a swashbuckling protagonist, he might as well become a brand-new character.
Also, what kind of story is this meant to be? Is this going to be a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, but from Gaston’s perspective? Or will this be something wholly original that either doesn’t involve Belle or uses her in a much different capacity? I’m just puzzled by what kind of thought process went into this project, which evidently stands a good chance of moving forward, as Deadline’s article mentions that “insiders say the studio is high on the idea.”
We’ll just have to see if this Gaston movie gets officially greenlit in 2026 or if this will be another one of those projects that lingers in development hell for a while. In the meantime, Moana is next up on the live-action Disney remakes/re-imaginings front, arriving to the 2026 movies schedule on July 10, 2026.
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