Disney has hit pause on its live-action remake of 2010’s animated musical Tangled (pictured), and it’s unclear whether the pic will ever get made. 

Announced in December 2024, the project had been in active development, with The Greatest Showman‘s Michael Gracey directing a script written by Thor: Love and Thunder‘s Jennifer Kaytin Robinson. 

Disney’s original Tangled was a loose adaptation of the Rapunzel folktale, revolving around a princess with magical long hair who yearns to leave her isolated tower and explore the world. It grossed nearly US$600 million at the global box office, and spawned a short film called Tangled Ever After and the animated series Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure (which ran from 2017 to 2020). 

Tangled is just the latest OG animated film in Disney’s vault to be tracked for a live-action redux—a strategy that seems sound in that it taps into an existing nostalgic fanbase to get a jumpstart on building a new audience. But from a box-office standpoint, the approach has been a bit hit-and-miss, with films such as The Lion King (2019) and Beauty and the Beast (2017) both doing more than US$1 billion globally, but others like Pete’s Dragon (2016) only grossing US$143.7 million. 

The latest IP to walk this path, Snow White, is off to a sleepy start at the box office, earning just US$145 million worldwide so far against an estimated budget of US$270 million. 

A live-action take on 2002’s Lilo & Stitch is up next and set for a May 23 release. It has already generated some good buzz, with a Super Bowl spot that racked up more than 173 million views in 24 hours (making it Disney’s most-watched spot digitally). And the film’s trailer is the second most-viewed Disney live-action trailer ever with 158 million views (exceeded only by The Lion King).