Somebody should probably tell Disney that not every single one of its animated classics needs to be remade in live-action, but when they’ve combined to earn tens of billions of dollars at the box office, you can understand why the Mouse House is so happy to keep churning them out.
That being said, there has been a notable nosedive from both a critical and commercial perspective recently; Mulan tanked at the box office, Peter Pan & Wendy was review-bombed into oblivion, Pinocchio was just awful, The Little Mermaid was blighted by unsavory backlash and still may not be profitable despite netting upwards of $560 million from theaters, and Peter Dinklage of all people is being blamed for the “controversy” surrounding Snow White.
Of course, there’s still at least another nine confirmed do-overs on the way, but The Hunchback of Notre Dame may not be one of them. Despite first being announced in January of 2019, development has been slow to put it lightly, with composer Alan Menken revealing this past May things had stalled.
Now, The Disinsider has weighed in, claiming that CEO Bob Iger isn’t a fan of the original and he might even end up shelving it permanently as a result.
“Now that Bob Iger is back in the driver’s seat, it is highly unlikely that the project will move forward as Iger is not the biggest fan of Hunchback of Notre Dame and a remake isn’t in their list of priorities. Things can obviously change but this is the most recent information we have on the project.”
It’s all just rumor and hearsay at this point, but after four and a half years of doing absolutely nothing, maybe it’s for the best if The Hunchback of Notre Dame slinks back into the shadows.