Luke Evans Is Starring in a Beauty and the Beast Prequel for Disney+

No one stars in a Disney+ prequel series like Gaston!

Luke Evans is coming back as the vain and villainous Gaston opposite Josh Gad as LeFou in a newly greenlit Disney+ series tentatively titled Beauty and the Best.

Beauty and the Best will be an eight-episode limited musical series that serves as a prequel to the 2017 live-action film. Both Evans and Gad will return to the roles they played in the film. It was tentatively announced last year, but just greenlit right now.

According to Deadline, the series is set in "the iconic kingdom of Beauty and the Beast years before the Beast and Belle's epic romance" and will follow Gaston and LeFou "as they set off with LeFou's stepsister, Tilly (played by Briana Middleton), after a surprising revelation from her past comes to light, sending the unlikely trio off on an unexpected journey filled with romance, comedy, and adventure."

The description continues, saying, "while the mysteries of the past are uncovered and the dangers of the present grow, old friends and new enemies reveal that this familiar kingdom harbors many secrets."

The live-action LeFou is one of several of Disney's "first ever gay characters" and was shown dancing with a man for a few seconds in one scene of the movie. Disney has a long history of erasing queer characters and storylines from its projects, but hopefully, that won't happen here.

Disney likes to position itself as a groundbreaking and inclusive company, but other than The Owl House and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, they have very little content when it actually comes to gay characters. Beauty and The Best would be a perfect way to get a little bit more by exploring LeFou's crush on Gaston.

The first episode will be directed by Tony-nominated director Liesl Tommy and legendary EGOT winner Alan Menken (who scored the original and live-action Beauty and the Beast films) is writing music for the series with Oscar-nominee Glenn Slater (Tangled) writing lyrics for the first episode.

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