Disney's live-action adaptations of its animated classics have been somewhat hit-or-miss, with some great efforts (The Lion King and this year's The Little Mermaid, for example), and at least a few bad ones (Pinocchio instantly springs to mind, as does the Maleficent sequel).
There is, however, a lot of excitement for Hercules, especially with Aladdin director Guy Ritchie at the helm and Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo overseeing the project as producers. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings writer, David Callaham, has been tapped to write the script and was thought to be hard at work on that before the WGA strike began earlier this year.
While writers have had to down tools, the SAG-AFTRA strike has seen actors also join the picket lines. That means they're unable to meet with studios about future roles, so we'd suggest taking any casting rumours with a pinch of salt for now.
If several social media scoopers are to be believed, though, Ariana Grande (Wicked) and Taron Egerton (Kingsman: The Secret Service) are being eyed for the roles of Hercules and Meg in the remake.
This isn't the first time we've seen Grande's name come up in regard to Meg, and with the singer looking to break into acting, it's a role we can definitely imagine her being well-suited for. As for Egerton, he's an immense talent and just so happens to have a mighty impressive singing voice.
Hercules was released by Disney in 1997 and earned positive reviews. It earned $252.7 million worldwide and followed the story of Hercules, a son of gods, who was snatched as a baby by Hades and forced to live among mortals as a half-man, half-god. As a teenager, the demi-god needed to perform a rite of passage on Earth to prove himself worthy of living with the gods on Mount Olympus.
From there, with his plucky satyr sidekick, Phil, along for the ride, Hercules learned how to use his strength to defeat a series of evil creatures, falling in love with Meg and battling the evil Hades.
The Russos have said this take on Hercules will be inspired by TikTok, comments which caused concern among many fans. As of now, no release date has been revealed and it's unclear how far into production the movie was before Hollywood essentially shut down.