Summary
- Disney has put the live-action remake of Tangled on indefinite hold, raising doubts about the future of such projects.
- The failure of Disney’s Snow White adaptation has led to concerns about the success of live-action remakes in general.
- Lilo & Stitch and Moana live-action remakes are still in the works, and may influence Disney’s decision to revive the Tangled project in the future.
Disney has regularly pushed live-action remakes over the last decade, adapting many classic animated films. Tangled is currently slated to be one of the next movies to receive that treatment, taking Rapunzel’s story and enhancing it with a new adaptation.
However, the latest news related to Disney’s Tangled remake isn’t positive, and that has had people questioning whether or not the movie will be made in the first place while worrying about the wider Disney live-action films generally.
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What Has Disney Decided For Tangled?
The Future Of Tangled Is Looking Bleak
There had been a lot of excitement about Tangled becoming a live-action movie due to the film being such a popular one. The fairytale based on Rapunzel would’ve been able to translate to this format nicely, but now Variety is claiming that Disney has put plans to adapt it on hold indefinitely. The movie was going to be produced by Michael Gracey, who was the director of The Greatest Showman, but the decision has been made to pull back on it. There is no clear reason why that is happening, but the timing, coming so soon after the release of Disney’s Snow White live-action adaptation, is interesting. The film grossed just $69 million domestically to this point while making only $145 million on a $270 million budget.
Snow White has brought Disney a lot of negative publicity from the start due to questions over the ethical decisions regarding who would play the seven dwarves. At the same time, Rachel Zegler’s comments about the original film didn’t help matters. All of the negativity that surrounded the movie certainly impacted it when it comes to the box office results, and that’s something that has cast doubts about the future of the live-action remakes across the board.
Disney’s Snow White Adaptation Has Had Everyone Questioning The Future
Lilo & Stitch’s Upcoming Film Might Salvage Things
Disney’s Snow White movie was a huge box office flop, and that’s something that has impacted Disney’s thinking regarding these projects. The Disney live-action movies have been highly hit-and-miss so far, with many of them not delivering on the expectations that fans have heading into them. People want to see a certain level of quality from them, but that hasn’t been the case for the majority, which has left moviegoers less inclined to go and view them. That’s why the decision to shelve Tangled could be a worrying sign that Disney might not be continuing with this project, which will disappoint people who enjoy these remakes.
Even though Tangled has been put on hold, there are still a couple of significant live-action remakes that will be released shortly. Lilo and Stitch will be released on May 23, while Moana is also getting a live-action remake on July 10, 2026. They’re two very popular franchises within Disney’s history, and tapping into them could be what the Tangled project needs to get off the ground again. If those two movies perform well at the box office, then Tangled might be greenlit again. It’s unknown whether Disney will be open to bringing the Tangled project back to life, but some successful films would likely provide the best possible chance of that happening.
Will Disney Stop Making Live-Action Remakes?
Audiences Want Something Different From Them
Tangled might have been put on hold for now, but it doesn’t mean Disney will completely give up on its live-action remakes. With two movies releasing in the next year and speculation of a third Maleficent film being in the works, Disney sees the positives of doing this from a business sense. Even though Snow White has been a flop, that doesn’t mean that all of Disney’s live-action films have failed. Many of the movies have made massive profits for the company, and given that the story and characters already exist, the pressure on coming up with something creative decreases with these films. Of course, if the remakes continue to fail like Snow White, then there will eventually come a time when Disney pulls the plug on them completely because they won’t want to damage their reputation.
One of the ways that Disney could salvage the situation would be to make bolder decisions with the live-action movies. For the most part, Disney has played things fairly safe with the remakes in terms of following the story that already exists, giving people nothing fresh. That stops audiences from wanting to view them, which is one of the reasons why the Maleficent movies have performed so well, as they took risks. Another way Disney could take risks is via their casting choices, which was rumored to be the case for Tangled as Sabrina Carpenter was rumored to potentially play Rapunzel. That would have been a bold call for Disney to make, but it would have made Tangled feel fresh, exciting, and current. However, fans will no longer speculate about who is playing Rapunzel, but they are wondering if Tangled will happen in the first place.
