Over the years, Disney has had lots of success with its live-action remakes of its classic animated films, with “The Lion King”, “Beauty And The Beast”, and “Aladdin” pulling in huge box office hauls.

In 2019, it was revealed that Disney was making a live-action remake of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”.  The film was written by David Henry Hwang, and it would see Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz, returning to create the soundtrack.

The film was going to be produced by Mandeville, and Josh Gad has also been producing the movie, with speculation that he might be playing the role of Quasimodo.

However, over the last few years, we’ve not really heard too much about the project, especially with the pandemic, budget cuts and now, with the writers/strikes, going on between then and now, many projects have been delayed or cancelled.   Back in 2021, Josh Gad revealed that the project was “Getting. Closer. And. Closer.”

Alan Menkin was recently asked about the film and said:

“I have no idea.  It’s a tough one, because the Hunchback movie, Hunchback story involves a lot of real, real issues that are important issues and should be explored to be discussed. And there has to be an agreement about how we deal with those issues. You know, do we do a Hunchback without ‘Hellfire?’ I don’t think so … So it sits in this limbo right now, but the Hercules movie is apparently underway and I got some inklings of what’s going on, but just some, and I’ve been more involved with the Broadway show off of Hercules, which is coming, and it’s really exciting.”

But this week, The DisInsider revealed that the project had been once again put on the back burner, since Bob Iger isn’t a fan of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”.

“Now that Bob Iger is back in the driver’s seat, it is highly unlikely that the project will move forward as Iger is not the biggest fan of Hunchback of Notre Dame and a remake isn’t in their list of priorities.  Things can obviously change but this is the most recent information we have on the project.”

While Disney has had some success with its live-action remakes, some of the recent releases like “Pinocchio”, “Peter Pan & Wendy” and “The Little Mermaid” haven’t hit the same level of interest, with audiences becoming wery of live-action remakes of animated films.   Due to its tricky subject matter, the film would also likely create some potential controversies, which Disney is trying to avoid as it’s been wrapped up in a culture war and is trying to navigate itself out of.

Disney still has lots of projects in development, including “Moana”, “Lilo & Stitch”, “Hercules” and “Snow White”.  But the “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” live-action remake seems to be finished.  It’s worth noting that nothing has been officially confirmed, and with the actors/writers’ strikes underway,

Josh Gad hasn’t had much luck with his recent Disney projects, as the “Beauty And The Beast” Disney+ series was paused, and his “Muppets” series was cancelled.

What do you think of a live-action version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame being cancelled?  Let us know on social media!

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

View all posts