Disney Shelves The Princess and the Frog Sequel Series Tiana

Walt Disney Animation Studios has unexpectedly opted to cancel anticipated Disney+ sequel series Tianawhich would have continued the adventures of characters from The Princess and the Frog. The upsetting move comes as rollbacks have occurred at the studio, and it also comes in the wake of a shift away from diversity in other projects, including a transgender storyline being cut from Pixar’s Win or Lose series.

The Princess and the Frog series would have brought back film star Anika Noni Rose to continue Princess Tiana’s journey as New Orleans royalty going on new musical adventures—building her culinary empire as an empowered Black woman restauranteur, as seen in the 2D animated film’s ending and on Disney Experiences’ newly opened theme park ride Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.

Insiders close to Tiana‘s production told the Hollywood Reporter that “despite best efforts, including several changes to the creative team, Tiana ultimately could not get to where it needed to be given production costs,” and that the decision was made in alignment with the Disney and Pixar’s choice to stop development on long-form episodic series for their streamer.

The sources said the animation studio’s focus would instead shift “to developing a separate short-form special inspired by The Princess and the Frogwhich is currently in early development.” This project currently has Joyce Sherri attached as director and writer and Steve Anderson as co-director. It’s also described as being a new story inspired by the film, which we hope isn’t just revisiting events of the movie we didn’t get to see. Tiana deserves to have her story to move forward, including all the magic and even bigger dreams in New Orleans.

The best-case scenario is that this move is inspired by Moana 2′s pivot from series to film which paid off handsomely for Disney Studios. Last year’s sequel to Moana made over $1 billion at the global box office and is poised to hit high streaming numbers once it arrives on Disney+.

So while the news of Tiana being canceled is disheartening, perhaps it signals a step toward a feature-length release?  We’ll be wishing on stars holding on to the hope that Tiana will get the royal treatment with a big-screen sequel our princess truly deserves.

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