'Beauty and the Beast' Sequel: Luke Evans' Gaston Almost Had a Follow-Up Movie
Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" live-action almost had a sequel. The movie starring Emma Watson (Belle) and Dan Stevens (Beast) nearly spun a solo film for Luke Evans' villainous character Gaston.
The original plan for the "Beauty and the Beast" live-action involved Gaston surviving his fall at the end of the film to differentiate it from the animation. The character supposedly received a curse from an enchantress as the new beast.
Evan Spiliotopoulos wrote the script to Gaston's story with Stephen Chbosky. The character was also supposed to have returned from a war with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and showed shades of a different man.
"This is the end of the 100 years war, so Gaston was a soldier. Female illiteracy is at 80 percent, so Belle is teaching girls to read," the writer said. "Once you ground them and make them part of a historical context it grounds it in reality."
Disney, however, cancelled the project at the last-minute. Instead, the studio kept the original storyline as the "Beauty and the Beast" animated flick.
Before the film released last March, Evans and Josh Gad (LeFou) discussed their ideas for a sequel. Evans thought that Gaston and LeFou should go on an adventure ala "Ferris Bueller' Day Off" to nurse his broken heart from Belle's rejection.
Meanwhile, Stevens revealed he's getting questions about the sequel a lot. Disney has no official plans in the books and the cast has also no idea if "Beauty and the Beast" will get a follow-up or a spin-off.
"That's not really a question I can answer. That's one for studio execs, I guess," Stevens stated. "I don't know what form that would take."
The live-action "Beauty and the Beast" ran in theatres in March, while the animated version came out in 1991. The latter was an Oscar-nominated film and almost won Best Picture.
