Disney is returning to the world of The Princess and the Frog, but thankfully, the current plan is considerably more interesting than simply recreating the 2009 animated film with real actors. A new live-action film centred on Princess Tiana is moving forward at Disney, with actor, writer and playwright Colman Domingo working with Robert O’Hara on the screenplay.

When the project was first reported in July, Domingo and O’Hara were still in early negotiations. By September, Domingo publicly said that the discussions were over and that the project was happening. No actress has yet been officially announced as Tiana.

More importantly, this is being developed as an original Tiana story, not a scene-for-scene live-action remake of The Princess and the Frog.

Considering how distinctive the original movie is, that might be the best possible direction.

 

Tiana has a life beyond turning into a frog

The 2009 movie introduced audiences to Tiana, voiced by Anika Noni Rose, a hardworking young woman in 1920s New Orleans whose greatest ambition is not finding a prince. She wants her own restaurant. Her plans become considerably more complicated when she meets Prince Naveen, who has been transformed into a frog by Dr Facilier. Tiana kisses him expecting to break the spell.

Instead, she becomes a frog too. What follows is a journey through the Louisiana bayou involving jazz-playing alligators, a hopelessly romantic firefly, a wonderfully eccentric Mama Odie and one of Disney’s most charismatic modern villains.

The film was directed by Disney veterans John Musker and Ron Clements, whose previous collaborations included The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules and Treasure Planet.

 

The new film wants to go back to New Orleans

Domingo has already offered an intriguing idea of what he and O’Hara want to explore. Rather than reproducing the animated plot, the pair have discussed looking more deeply at Tiana’s family, the characters audiences already know and the magic, spirituality and Mardi Gras culture of New Orleans. Domingo has described the intention as creating something grounded while retaining humour and heart.

That has much more potential than another Disney live-action exercise in asking how accurately a computer-generated frog can reproduce an animated frog from 2009. Tiana’s world was always bigger than the fairy tale at its centre.

New Orleans was a character in the film. Its architecture, food, jazz, celebrations and supernatural folklore gave The Princess and the Frog an identity quite unlike Disney’s European fairy-tale settings. A new story has the opportunity to remain in that world rather than spending most of the running time transforming its heroine into an animal again.

 

Tiana was a very different kind of Disney princess

The original film was significant for several reasons. Tiana became Disney’s first Black princess, but the film also defined her differently from many of the company’s earlier heroines. Her central dream existed before Prince Naveen entered the story.

She wanted financial independence. She wanted to build something herself. She wanted to open the restaurant she had imagined with her father.

Domingo has specifically highlighted that part of the character, describing Tiana as a princess whose ambition was centred on creating her own business rather than beginning with romance.

That makes an original continuation particularly appealing. A remake would simply send her through the same transformation again. A continuation can finally ask what happens once Tiana actually has the life she worked so hard to build.

The music also deserves to survive

The Princess and the Frog has one of Disney’s most distinctive modern soundtracks. Randy Newman wrote the songs and score, drawing from jazz, gospel, blues and zydeco. The film received three Academy Award nominations, including Best Animated Feature and two Best Original Song nominations for “Almost There” and “Down in New Orleans”.

Keith David’s Dr Facilier also gave us “Friends on the Other Side”, which somehow manages to be charming, theatrical and deeply sinister at exactly the same time. Whether the new film will be a musical has not been confirmed. Nor has Disney said which characters from the animation will return. That means Naveen, Charlotte, Mama Odie and Dr Facilier should not currently be treated as confirmed live-action characters.

 

And no, Tiana has not been cast yet

This deserves emphasis because social media has already done what social media does. Names have circulated. Fan castings have become posts that look suspiciously like news announcements. Zendaya has been claimed as Tiana in viral posts.

None of that is confirmed. As of October 2026, Disney has not announced who will play Tiana.

Domingo has even spoken about receiving fan suggestions for the casting.

That means we are still at the stage where the film has writers and an approach, but not a publicly announced star, director or release date.

 

Why this could work better than another remake

Disney’s live-action adaptation strategy has become increasingly predictable. Take a beloved animated film. Recreate familiar scenes. Reproduce famous songs. Turn characters who were designed for animation into realistic digital creatures. Then ask audiences to rediscover a story they already know. The Tiana project has an opportunity to avoid that problem entirely.

The Princess and the Frog already gave us the fairy tale. We know how Tiana meets Naveen. We know about the curse. We know how she gets her restaurant. The more interesting question is what comes after happily ever after.

What does it mean for Tiana to run her restaurant?

What does her family look like now?

What other stories exist in this version of New Orleans?

What happens when the magical world that produced Mama Odie and Dr Facilier extends beyond one particular curse?

Those questions do not require Disney to erase the animated film. They allow the company to build on it.

 

Tiana deserves more than becoming a frog again

There is a lovely irony in the fact that The Princess and the Frog is remembered as a princess movie even though Tiana spends an enormous amount of it as an amphibian. A new film can finally leave her human.

It can let the character exist in the city, family and business she spent the original movie fighting to reach.

It can use the animated film as a beginning rather than a blueprint.

There is still a lot we do not know.

There is no confirmed cast. There is no director. There is no release date. But the most encouraging detail is already there.

Disney does not appear to be asking how to remake The Princess and the Frog.

It is asking what other story Tiana has to tell. That is a far more interesting question.