Disney is heading back to the bayou—and Princess Tiana is finally getting another shot at the spotlight.
More than 15 years after The Princess & The Frog made history by introducing Disney's first Black princess, the studio is developing a live-action film centered on the beloved character. According to Variety, Emmy winner and two-time Oscar nominee Colman Domingo and acclaimed playwright-director Robert O'Hara are in talks to write the project, which will tell a brand-new story inspired by Tiana rather than remake the 2009 animated classic.
The project is still in the early stages, but the creative team alone is making headlines. Domingo and O'Hara have a long creative history, having previously collaborated on Wild with Happy at The Public Theater in 2012.
Tiana first captured audiences in The Princess & The Frog, the New Orleans-set musical that followed an ambitious waitress determined to open her own restaurant before an enchanted kiss transformed both her and Prince Naveen into frogs. The film grossed more than $270 million worldwide, earned three Academy Award nominations—including Best Animated Feature—and cemented Tiana's place as a landmark Disney heroine.
The announcement also caps off a remarkable run for Domingo. Fresh off the billion-dollar success of Michael, where he played controversial Jackson patriarch Joe Jackson, the actor has also earned major acclaim for Disclosure Day, The Four Seasons, and HBO's Euphoria, the latter of which earned him two more Emmy nominations.
Later this year, Domingo is also set to direct, produce, and star in the Nat "King" Cole biopic Unforgettable.
The news is especially significant for Disney fans, following the studio’s scrapping of plans for a Tiana Disney+ series. Instead, the princess's world has continued to grow through Tiana's Bayou Adventure, which replaced Splash Mountain at Disneyland and Walt Disney World.
