Following the disappointing box office performance of Disney's live-action Moana, the studio seemingly remains undeterred with its remake strategy as it has unveiled plans for yet another live-action adaptation.
Per Deadline, Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated actor Colman Domingo is currently developing a live-action adaptation of the 2009 Disney animated feature The Princess and the Frog.
Domingo is writing the screenplay with Tony Award-nominated director Robert O'Hara. While Disney hasn't confirmed whether he'll also appear in the film, his deep creative involvement makes it a strong possibility.
The announcement (particularly the timing of it) is an interesting one, especially considering Disney's recent uneven track record with live-action remakes.
The studio has certainly scored major hits with films like Lilo & Stitch and Mufasa: The Lion King, but others, including Snow White, Moana, and The Little Mermaid, failed to meet expectations at the box office or divided audiences.
What potentially sets this Princess and the Frog live-action project apart is that it's reportedly "inspired" by the 2009 film as opposed to a one-for-one remake. What that exactly means at this early stage of development is anyone's guess.
Before it was a Disney movie, The Princess and the Frog was a 2002 novel by E. D. Baker called The Frog Princess. But the story's roots go back even further, as the ultimate source material is the Brothers Grimm’s classic German fairy tale, The Frog Prince.
Set against the vibrant backdrop of 1920s New Orleans, the 2009 animated musical centers on Tiana, an incredibly ambitious waitress working around the clock to open her dream restaurant. But her life takes a wild, magical detour when she meets Prince Naveen. He’s an arrogant royal who has been turned into a frog by a scheming voodoo sorcerer named Dr. Facilier.
Domingo's Princess and the Frog project joins a growing list of Disney live-action remakes, which includes Tangled (which is currently filming), Lilo & Stitch 2, Hercules, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Bambi.
The upcoming live-action movie will keep Princess Tiana fresh in fans' minds, filling the void left by a recently axed Disney+ project. First announced back in 2020, that animated musical series was supposed to bring back most of the original movie's voice cast.
However, Disney quietly shelved the show in early 2025 due to ballooning production costs and a massive corporate pivot away from long-form streaming content.
In other Tiana Disney news, Disney World opened a reimagined version of Splash Mountain in 2024, rethemed to The Princess and the Frog.