Oh, great, now she’s the bad guy.
Kathryn Hahn, who earned an Emmy nomination playing the villainous Agatha Harkness in a pair of Marvel Studios TV shows, is going to the dark side once more.
The actress is in talks to play Mother Gothel, the magical would be step-mother, in Disney’s live-action take on Tangled.
The move comes after the studio chose rising Australian actress Teagan Croft and Milo Manheim, star of Disney Channel’s musical Zombies franchise, to star. Croft will play Rapunzel, the curious and plucky would-be princess with magical hair, and Manheim stars as Flynn Rider, the cocky outlaw thief who helps her escape her tower.
Michael Gracey, who counts the musical biopics Better Man and The Greatest Showman among his credits, is directing the feature, which, like the original, will have big musical elements. Producing is Kristin Burr, who has long-standing ties to the studio and was a producer on last summer’s Freakier Friday as well as 2021’s live-action Cruella. Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (Do Revenge, Thor: Love and Thunder) wrote the script.
Disney had no comment.
The casting of Hahn will be a bit of a magical treat to fans, who for months had fan-cast her as the bad guy in this project, even when actress Scarlett Johansson was temporarily inhabiting it.
The part is fun one, with delectable lines and even a musical number, “Mother Knows Best.”
Hahn starred in Marvel series Agatha All Along, reprising her role of the magical enchantress who causes all sorts of trouble for both good and bad guys. The part earned her a Golden Globe nomination and the show was one of the more popular of the Marvel series.
More recently, Hahn starred in The Studio, playing head of marketing Maya Mason in the acclaimed Apple series. She also earned an Emmy nomination for the part.