Disney’s 2009 animated hit The Princess and the Frog is getting a sequel in the form of a Disney+ original series entitled Tiana. Based on the eponymous fairytale story, The Princess and the Frog follows an aspiring restaurateur named Tiana who goes on a whirlwind bayou adventure after meeting a prince who has been turned into a frog. Noted for its hand drawn aesthetic and catchy New Orleans-inspired score, The Princess and the Frog felt like the last glimpse of the Disney Renaissance before the studio moved exclusively toward CGI animation.
Hope for a sequel was high ever since the film’s debut, but little came of a potential Princess and the Frog franchise as the years ticked by. However, Disney has now produced a TV series that will act as a direct sequel and follow Tiana after she gets her happily ever after and her restaurant. Though details surrounding Tiana are still scarce, it offers Disney a chance to capture a bit more of the classic magic found in The Princess and the Frog and potentially introduce Tiana to a new audience who weren’t even born yet when the film debuted.
Related
Tiana: 10 Things We Hope To See In The New Disney+ Princess And The Frog Series
Now that Disney+ has announced their new Princess and the Frog series in Tiana, fans are talking about what they’d like to see in the upcoming show.
Disney’s Tiana Latest News
New Details Revealed At D23
From what Sherri said at D23, it’s clear that
Tiana
won’t be a rehash of the movie, though exact details about the story are still quite elusive.
Though the project has been known for a while, the latest update comes as new story details for Tiana. Revealed during the “Tiana’s World” event at Disney’s 2024 D23 fan expo, Tiana‘s lead writer and director Joyce Sherri dropped some hints about what to expect from the Disney+ exclusive. “We haven’t even seen Maldonia yet!” said Sherri, referring to the fictional kingdom that Tiana became the princess of at the end of the film. Furthermore, Sherri teased a more character-driven story, saying “And the thing that she’ll discover, that life, just like everything else in your dreams, can evolve.”
Read Sherri’s full comments here:
Well, Tiana’s journey is far from over. Of all the things that she has going on now, I think that I’m most excited about showing Tiana learning that the world is a lot bigger than she realized. That magic is – there’s a lot more magical things happening in the world than she realized, and learning what it is to be a leader. Not just as a leader of her restaurant, but she’s a princess now of the whole place of Maldonia, we haven’t even seen Maldonia yet! And what that means for her, and the impact that she has on the community around her, and how does she maintain her Tiana-ness, like who she is as an individual, with all these new expectations on her life.
And so with the help of all of her friends, and the people that love and care about and support her, I’m really looking forward to having her discover those things, and to see what the next chapter of her life [is]. And the thing that she’ll discover, that life, just like everything else in your dreams, can evolve, depending on what are the things you have in your life and the things that you want for yourself and the new discoveries that you might find, with the new magical situation she might find herself in for the series. But yeah, I’m really excited for you all to see it, it’s amazing.
From what Sherri said at D23, it’s clear that Tiana won’t be a rehash of the movie, though exact details about the story are still quite elusive. From what has been said, Tiana will be heading to Maldonia to survey her new domain, but it isn’t clear how that will impact her business and life back in New Orleans. Despite a robust presentation at D23 in 2024, Tiana has not been placed on the schedule yet.
Disney’s Tiana Is Confirmed
Tiana Was Announced In 2020
It took more than 10 years for a follow-up to The Princess and the Frog to be announced, and Tiana was revealed in 2020. It would be another year before any further updates would surface, and the first image was released in 2021. Further years would pass, and the series would be shifted from a planned 2023 release, to a 2024 release, to eventually being marked as simply “coming soon”. In August 2024, Disney revealed story details at their D23 fan expo event, which proved the project was still happening. Nevertheless, the release date is unknown.
The Princess and the Frog
premiered on December 11, 2009.
Disney’s Tiana Cast Details
Tiana’s Original Voice Actor Is Still Signed On
Even though Tiana has been stuck in development for the better part of five years, the promising project does still have one big selling factor. The cast of Tiana is largely unformed, but original Tiana voice actor Anika Noni Rose is signed on to reprise her role as the Disney princess with a heart of gold and a love for cooking. Other characters from The Princess and the Frog will presumably return as well, though no one else is officially signed on. Prince Naveen seems like the most logical return, but it is uncertain if Bruno Campos will provide the voice once again.
Disney’s Tiana Story Details
Tiana Travels To Maldonia
Like most of Disney’s classic princess movies, the ending of The Princess and the Frog saw Tiana get everything she wanted from her handsome new husband to her beautiful restaurant. This leaves Tiana in an interesting place, as the story isn’t exactly clear. However, teases from director Joyce Sherri at 2024’s D23 event suggest that Tiana will travel to her new kingdom of Maldonia and go on a journey of self-discovery once again.
Sherri also hinted at another magical adventure, and though she probably won’t get turned into an amphibian again, Tiana will likely find herself dealing with powerful forces beyond her control. What those could be is up in the air, though it’s highly unlikely that the sequel TV series will repeat the story beats found in the film (or bring back the villainous Dr. Facilier). Whatever happens in Tiana it will be a character-driven narrative that attempts to capture some of the classic Disney magic found in The Princess and the Frog.
The Princess and the Frog
4.5
Based on the classic fairytale, The Princess and the Frog follow Tiana, a hardworking New Orleans waitress in the 1920s who has big dreams of opening her own restaurant. When she becomes involved in a curse set upon a foreign prince by a witch doctor, however, Tiana must figure out a way to help the prince break the curse before time runs out. The film features the voices of Anika Noni Rose, Bruno Campos, Jim Cummings, Jennifer Cody, and John Goodman.
- Director
- John Musker
- Release Date
- December 10, 2009
- Writers
- John Musker
- Cast
- Anika Noni Rose , John Musker , Keith David
- Runtime
- 97minutes
- Budget
- $105 million