The world is still in the grip of Frozen fever, with Frozen 2 decimating the competition and ruling the box office ever since its debut. Disney has created one of their biggest franchise hits with the two films and now they’re ready to plumb its depth even further for more, as according to our sources – the same ones who said the Mouse House was doing an Aladdin sequel, which we now know to be true – a live-action remake of Frozen is in the works but the catch is that it’ll be based on and stay very true to The Snow Queen, which was the original inspiration for the film.
Written by Hans Christian Andersen way back in 1844, The Snow Queen is a story about the struggle between good and evil as demonstrated by the battle between the heroes Gerda and Kai, and the antagonist, the icy and forbidding Snow Queen. After Kai gets a fragment of an enchanted mirror in his eye, he becomes cruel and uncaring, falling under the spell of the falling snow and their mistress the Snow Queen, who seduces him away from his home and into her servitude. The rest of the story deals with Kai’s imprisonment under the Snow Queen, and Gerda’s quest to find and save him.
Of course, most of the plot of The Snow Queen was reworked for Frozen, as the evil Queen became the misunderstood Elsa, while Gerda and Kai became Anna and Kristoff, respectively. Now, Disney intends to make a much more direct adaptation of the original story, which will essentially result in a live-action remake of Frozen, only it’ll presumably be titled The Snow Queen and be much, much darker and with more horror elements, including a cackling demon who’s the owner of the magic mirror and scenes where the people of the world, infected by pieces of said mirror, begin to see only the bad and ugly side of things and act accordingly.
Such an adaptation is unlikely to have the universal appeal of Frozen, of course, but it’ll no doubt be a fascinating addition to the franchise and reveal a new take on the character of Elsa that will doubtless shock fans who’ve fallen in love with the girl-power and “I can do it on my own” theme of empowerment that she’s come to represent.
