Colman Domingo is in talks to co-write an original live-action feature about Princess Tiana for Disney. The project is being framed as a spinoff inspired by The Princess and the Frog, not a straight retelling, and the deal is still in early days.
Princess Tiana and Robert O’Hara
Domingo is expected to write the feature with Robert O’Hara, a pairing that puts one of this year’s busiest screen-and-stage names into another Disney lane. He has two Emmy noms this year, for Comedy Series Supporting Actor for Netflix’s Four Seasons and Guest Actor Drama Series for HBO’s Euphoria, and he is guest-hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live! all next week.
The writing assignment would add another live-action turn to a Disney property built on an existing animated film, but the project’s shape is still loose. That matters because the current setup points to a new story centered on Princess Tiana rather than a scene-by-scene remake, which gives the writers more room and gives Disney more flexibility on how closely it wants to follow the 2009 film.
The Princess and the Frog
The source material arrived in 2009 with John Musker and Ron Clements directing, Randy Newman writing the score and songs, and Anika Noni Rose voicing Tiana. It was set in New Orleans during the 1920s, built on E.D. Baker’s The Frog Princess, and followed Tiana, a waitress who dreams of opening her own restaurant and turns into a frog after trying to turn Naveen back into a human.
The film grossed $267 million worldwide and drew three Oscar nominations, including Best Animated Feature and songs “Almost There” and “Down in New Orleans.” For Disney, that is the kind of back catalog that can support another live-action spin, especially when the character at the center is already familiar to viewers and the writing team includes a two-time Oscar nominee with stage credits in Summer: The Donna Summer Musical and Fat Ham.
Disney’s early deal stage
The complication is the same one that usually decides whether these projects move or stall: the business side is not locked. The report says the film is still early days as far as deals go, so the immediate question is whether Disney turns a creative conversation into paper before momentum shifts elsewhere.
For now, Colman Domingo has moved from awards-season presence to live-action development talk, and that is the real signal here. If Disney closes the writing deal, Princess Tiana stops being a legacy title and becomes an active feature project; if it does not, the idea stays where it is now, in the file marked early.
