Jelani Alladin's next project will take him back to a "tale as old as time." According to Deadline, Alladin has been cast in Disney+'s upcoming Beauty and the Beast prequel series.
Alladin will play Jean-Michel, "a talented artist who has a quick wit, a sharp intellect, and a fierce independent streak". Alladin has previously worked with Disney, when he played Kristoff in the Broadway adaptation of the 2013 animated film Frozen. Alladin's other previous work includes playing Will Campbell in The Walking Dead: World Beyond, which ran on AMC from 2020-2021, as well as a role in tick, tick...BOOM!.
Joining Alladin in the series will be Luke Evans, reprising his role as Gaston from the 2017 live-action version of Beauty and the Beast, and Josh Gad as Gaston's sidekick LeFou. Briana Middleton will play LeFou's step-sister Tilly, and Hawkeye star Fra Fee will feature as Prince Benoit Berlioz. Gad developed the series with Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, who previously worked on Once Upon a Time, its spin-off Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, and Lost. Gad, Kitsis, and Horowitz will be the series' showrunners and executive producers, with Lisel Tommy directing the show's pilot episode.
The eight-episode musical limited series will follow Gaston and LeFou as they set off on an adventure with Tilly after her past comes back to meet her with surprising results. "For anyone who's ever wondered how a brute like Gaston and a goof like LeFou could have ever become friends and partners, or how a mystical enchantress came to cast that fateful spell on the prince-turned-beast, this series will finally provide those answers... and provoke a whole new set of questions," said Gary Marsh, Disney Branded Television's president and chief creative officer.
No official release date has been announced for the series.