The ‘Tangled’ Remake Is Back on, and Scarlett Johansson Might Be Joining

Tangled has been untangled. Last year, Greatest Showman director Michael Gracey was attached to a live-action remake of the hit 2010 Disney musical but after the live-action Snow White bombed at the box office, Disney put a pin in it. Now, that pin has been pulled, especially with Scarlett Johansson reportedly circling the role of the villainous Mother Gothel.

Deadline broke the news of the resurgence, citing Snow White as the reason for the pause. But also, explaining that “there’s a big difference in regards to the audience appeal for old Disney animated pics receiving the live action take, versus those titles post the 1989 Little Mermaid musical renaissance.”

Basically, with the exception of The Little Mermaid, almost all of the live-action adaptations of classic animated films originally released in that era—Aladdin, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast—have fared much better than Snow White. The most recent example is Lilo & Stitch, which remains the only $1 billion grosser of the year so far.

Jennifer Kaytin Robinson wrote the script for the remake, which is expected to follow the beats of the 2010 film that featured the voices of Mandy Moore as Rapunzel and Zachary Levi as Flynn Rider. There’s no word on who’d play those roles yet but Johansson as Mother Gothel, who kidnaps and imprisons the magical Rapunzel in order to keep her own youth, would be a huge win for the studio.

The original film grossed almost $600 million globally and won a Grammy for its signature song, “I See the Light.” It remains a beloved addition to the Disney animated musical family, with a ride recently opening at DisneySea in Tokyo, Japan. If and when this film happens, it has every chance to be as big a hit as many of those other films.

Do you see any more entanglements for a Tangled remake? Is Scarlett Johansson the special ingredient to get it done? Let us know below.

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