Disney Pauses Live-Action Tangled Remake Following Snow White Disappointment

by Annika April 3, 2025

Disney’s live-action remake of its 2010 animated film “Tangled” has been put on hold, sources have revealed. This follows the disappointing reception of the company’s recent “Snow White” remake, which earned just $69 million domestically. The future direction of “Tangled” remains uncertain.

Disney Pauses Live-Action Tangled Remake Following Snow White Disappointment

– Disney has paused the development of a live-action version of Tanged, its 2010 animated film based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale Rapunzel, due to the unfavorable reception of the live-action Snow White movie.
– It is unclear whether the project will be re-evaluated or simply paused for now, but Disney has other live-action remakes in the pipeline, including Lilo & Stitch and Moana.
– Changes in Disney’s executive team also occurred around the same time as the pause, with Daria Cercek taking over as head of live-action theatrical films.

Disney’s live-action adaptation of its animated film, Tangled, based on the fairy tale legend of Rapunzel, has been momentarily suspended, as confirmed by industry sources.

This project was in active development with The Greatest Showman’s Michael Gracey on board as director, and a screenplay by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, known for her works on Thor: Love and Thunder.

However, the decision to push pause on this project occurred following the recent underwhelming release of Disney’s Snow White, another live-action adaptation. Disappointingly, the movie only managed to garner $69 million domestically and $145 million internationally, against an inflated production budget of $270 million due to the 2023 labor strikes. Controversies surrounding the casting dynamics and personal social media activities of its star, Rachel Zegler, marred the film from the start. Viewers were also not enthusiastic about the movie, which earned a B+ Cinemascore and scored a 50 percent on Metacritic.

It is yet to be determined if Tangled will resume production in the future or require a creative overhaul.

Disney has been heavily depending on remakes of its classic movies into live-action productions since the 2010s. Some of these adaptations like the Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin found significant success, while others like Dumbo disappointed.

Even though Snow White’s release was not as successful, Disney is optimistic about the upcoming live-action remakes. Lilo & Stitch, a remake of the 2002 animated film, will be released on May 23. It garnered 173.1 million views on its Super Bowl spot in 24 hours, becoming Disney’s most-viewed digital spot.

Similarly, the live-action Moana is slated for release on July 10, 2026. The movie is based on one of Disney+’s biggest streaming films, exceeding 1.4 billion hours. This is equivalent to watching the film over 735 million times or looping the Oscar-nominated song “How Far I’ll Go” for more than 50,000 years.

The decision to put Tangled on hold also coincided with changes in Disney’s executive structure. In February, Daria Cercek was appointed as head of live-action theatrical films, succeeding Sean Bailey and reporting to David Greenbaum, the President of Disney Live Action and 20th Century Studios. The direction for Tangled’s future may be influenced by these new management strategies.