For a second there, we thought the critical and commercial failure of Snow White would mark the end of the Disney live-action remakes. But then, Lilo & Stitch made a billion dollars, and Disney saw there was still money to be made by mining its glorious animated past. One of their biggest live-action remakes was 2017’s Beauty and the Beast, which made over a billion dollars. Now, according to a report from Variety, another live-action spin-off from the 1991 animated classic is coming, focusing on the villain, Gaston. And Luke Evans, who played him in the 2017 film, won’t play the part again.
What do we know about this new spin-off? According to the report, this will be “A fresh take with a new leading man.” With movies like Wicked, and before that, Maleficent, there’s been a trend toward explaining “How the villain became villainous” in movies. Heck, the entire Star Wars prequel trilogy was about that very thing. But is Gaston really the character to do that with? Sure, he has a great song in the original film. We are eternally grateful, Howard Ashman and Alan Menken. But the character is a raging misogynist and leads an angry mob against someone simply because they look different. I’m not sure making him a protagonist is wise. In fact, it sounds tone deaf in this climate.
Of course, Gaston is indeed very hot. That’s not a factor that one can overlook in terms of marketing. That could get butts in seats if they find the right actor. Or maybe we get the reveal that he didn’t really die at the end of Beauty and the Beast? Then, we might get some kind of redemption arc. But as of right now, we’re not sure how excited we are for the origin of Gaston as a toxic bully. There’s no word yet from Disney on any director or release date, so this might remain in development hell. We’ll have to wait and see.