‘Tiana’: Disney+ Drops ‘Princess and the Frog’ Sequel Series!!

Disney princesses have been around for nearly 100 years since Snow White burst onto the scene in 1937, and now the latest in a long line of royalty just got a devastating update. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the planned Tiana series, first announced in 2020, which was set to be focused on the popular Princess and the Frog character voiced by Anika Noni Rose, has officially been scrapped. This comes as one change in a larger shift to its content output model, as the studio plans to focus less on animated projects going forward. The Tiana series was going to be the first centered on Disney‘s original Black princess, and while there is reportedly a short-form Princess and the Frog project in the works, it’s unclear if Anika Noni Rose will return to reprise her role as Tiana, as it’s said to “feature all new storytelling.”

The THR report further peeled back the curtain on the tragic news, saying that even several major changes to the creative team with the Tiana series were unable to get it release-ready, considering its sizable budget. It’s also not even been a year since Disney unveiled the Tiana Bayou ride, which was remodeled from a classic Splash Mountain attraction. Disney may have begun as an animated studio focused mostly on children’s projects, but it has grown into much more of a global conglomerate with a content monopoly that no other studio can match. Both Marvel Studios and Star Wars, two of the biggest franchises in the world with the most profitable box office returns, now operate under the Disney banner. Disney also has control of Pixar, which has produced some of the other biggest animated hits in the world, such as Toy Story and Cars.

Who Was the Creative Team Involved With the ‘Tiana’ Series?

Anika Noni Rose was the only name attached to star in the Disney+ series, but it was going to be written by original Princess and the Frog creators Ron Clements and John Musker. Stella Meghie and Joyce Sherri were also attached as writers on the project and were even set to direct at least one episode each. Meghie will direct at least one episode of the upcoming MCU series, Wonder Man, and Sherri is best known for her work as a Staff Writer on Midnight Mass, the Netflix original series starring Kate Siegel.