Disney’s live-action rendition of their 2010 animated feature, Tangled, is once again in development.
According to Deadline, the project, which is a retelling of the Rapunzel fairy tale, is currently revving up again after pausing in April not long after the live-action Snow White bombed at the box office. Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman, Better Man) is still attached to direct, with a script from Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, whose previous credits include writing the 2025 iteration of I Know What You Did Last Summer and Thor: Love and Thunder.
Deadline also reports that none other than Scarlett Johansson (Jurassic World: Rebirth, Black Widow) is in talks to play Mother Gothel: the witch who imprisons Rapunzel in a tower and, as her “mom,” emotionally abuses the young woman—she doesn’t even give her shoes!—as she uses the magic of Rapunzel’s hair to stay young.
The project, however, is still in its early days. Disney, in fact, has yet to officially give it the green light to move into production. That means that Johansson might end up not playing Mother Gothel, and we still don’t know who will play Rapunzel herself or her love interest, the thief Flynn Ryder.
Given the success of the animated feature—it cleared over $600 million at the box office in 2010—and the success of live-action versions of more recent Disney films (other than Snow White), however, I think the odds are good that the movie will eventually make its way to production.
