After starring in multiple Star Wars projects, including Disney+ and Lucasfilm’s lauded recent series Andor, Diego Luna is expanding his relationship with Disney as one of the stars of the live-action Tangled movie, based on the studio’s Academy Award-nominated 2010 animated feature, Deadline can confirm.
Character details are under wraps. As previously announced, Teagan Croft and Milo Manheim lead the ensemble as Rapunzel and Flynn Rider, the thief who helps the princess escape the tower she’s stuck in. Kathryn Hahn is set for the villain role of Mother Gothel.
Plot details for the live-action Tangled are under wraps. We were first to report on The Greatest Showman helmer Michael Gracey coming aboard to direct in 2024. He’s working from a script by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson and Michael Montemayor. Kristin Burr is producing for Burr! Productions, with Lucy Kitada exec producing. EVP of Production Jessica Virtue is overseeing the project for Disney Live Action, with production set to commence in Spain in June.
Directed by Nathan Greno and Byron Howard, the original Tangled was a modern retelling of the classic Rapunzel fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. In it, Rapunzel, a spirited young princess with magical, golden hair, escapes from her isolated tower for the first time to experience the world, embarking on an adventure with a charming thief, only to discover her true identity and face the dangerous truth about the woman who kept her captive. A pop culture phenomenon, the film grossed over $590 million worldwide, scored an Oscar nomination for original song “I See the Light,” and was among the films revitalizing Disney’s princess genre for a new generation. Composer Alan Menken and lyricist Glenn Slater were behind the film’s music.
A two-time Emmy and three-time Golden Globe nominee, Luna recently got behind the camera as director and co-writer of Ashes (Ceniza en la boca), a new film based on the acclaimed Spanish-language novel, which is set to premiere at Cannes on May 13. His upcoming slate also includes Netflix’s World Cup flick México 86, out June 5, and Peter Landesman’s hostage crisis thriller Eleven Days.
THR was first to his Tangled casting.