Disney develops live-action Gaston-centred film from ‘Beauty and the Beast’

Disney is developing a live-action spinoff centered on Gaston, the swaggering antagonist from "Beauty and the Beast", extending the studio's long-running strategy of revisiting its animated canon through standalone character films.

The project is being written by David Callaham, whose recent credits include "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" and "Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings". Plot details remain under wraps, and a director has yet to be attached. Disney has also not announced casting, signaling that the film is still in early development.

Gaston entered popular culture in Disney's 1991 animated "Beauty and the Beast", itself adapted from the classic French fairy tale about Belle, a bookish young woman who falls in love with a cursed prince and restores his humanity. The original film became Disney's highest-grossing animated release at the time. Its 2017 live-action musical remake, starring Emma Watson as Belle, was another major box-office success.

In the animated classic, Gaston is portrayed as a vain, aggressive hunter whose obsession with Belle borders on menace. His exaggerated masculinity is played for comic effect, most memorably in the song "Gaston," which celebrates his outsized ego and appetite. Luke Evans portrayed the character in the 2017 remake, but he is not expected to return. According to industry sources, Disney is pursuing a fresh interpretation with a new actor in the role.

The decision reflects Disney's uneven but persistent push to mine familiar intellectual property. While some recent efforts have stumbled—this year's "Snow White" underperformed—other reimaginings have been extraordinarily lucrative. The 2017 "Beauty and the Beast" adaptation, along with 2019's "The Lion King" and "Aladdin," each crossed the billion-dollar mark worldwide.

Disney has also experimented with villain-led narratives. "Cruella", released during the pandemic and debuting directly on Disney+, reworked the backstory of the "101 Dalmatians" antagonist and was generally well received. That model—reframing a familiar villain through a contemporary lens—appears to inform the studio's approach to Gaston.

Beyond this project, Disney continues to expand its slate of live-action adaptations. A reimagining of "Tangled" is in development, as is a film centered on Prince Charming, to be produced by Paul King, the filmmaker behind "Wonka."