Disney is moving forward with that Beauty And The Beast prequel show about Gaston

Disney+ can’t really be all that desperate for content, right? It could just take a month off, not add anything new to the platform, and coast on the money from people who really like watching the old vault content or who haven’t caught up on the Marvel and Star Wars shows, right? Very few people would notice and even fewer would object in any way, and it would mean the people running Disney+ would get a few weeks off from Mickey Mouse screaming at them to chisel more content from the content mines. “Ah ha ha! More nature documentaries! More shows about Clone Troopers! I’m friends with a dog and also I have a pet dog! Ah ha ha!”

But alas, Disney+ cannot stop, it must have more content, and soon that content will include an untitled Beauty And The Beast prequel about Gaston and LeFou—specifically the live-action movie versions of Gaston and LeFou, played by Luke Evans and Josh Gad, who will be reprising their roles for the show. We first heard that this was in the works last year, and today Disney announced that it has given the project a green light and will be moving forward with an eight-episode order for it. That seems like a lot of episodes, maybe too many episodes, but at least Alan Menken is coming back to the Beauty And The Beast franchise to write some new music for Gaston and LeFou. That seems okay.

Evans and Gad won’t be alone on this adventure, though: They’ll be joined by Tilly, LeFou’s stepsister, who will be played here by Briana Middleton. The trio will then go on an “unexpected journey” (heads-up, Warner Bros. lawyers) that is “filled with romance, comedy, and adventure.” Hopefully it will also be filled with “trying to force someone to love you” and “trying to jealously murder a woman’s new boyfriend just because he’s big and hairy,” since that’s the stuff people know Gaston likes from the original movie.