Beauty and the Beast Release Date Set for 2017

In what might not be the most shocking news after Cinderella took in a dazzling $70 million this weekend in the U.S. (and $132 million worldwide), Disney is already staking another March claim for their live-action remakes of animated classics: Beauty and the Beast will be released on March 17, 2017. While Beauty and the Beast is based on the classic French fairy tale by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, we imagine that it will also have a bit of the luck of the Irish on such a date.

This will be the fourth of the live-action Disney remakes to open in March, following in the successful footsteps of Alice in Wonderland (which cleared $1 billion worldwide) and Cinderella. Mirror, Mirror also opened in March. Still, with a source material as beloved as the 1991 Beauty and the Beast classic, and a lead as popular for this as Emma Watson as Belle, we imagine that any and all superhero movies will not be encroaching on late March that year at the last minute.

Disney also announced that Emma Thompson (Saving Mr. Banks, Love Actually) and Kevin Kline (The Last of Robin Hood, A Prairie Home Companion) will be joining the film as Mrs. Potts and Belle’s father, Maurice, respectively. We imagine that much of Thompson’s performance will rely on CGI considering Mrs. Potts spent almost the entire 1991 film as a serving piece for tea—though in that case could Angela Lansbury not reprise the role?

Beauty and the Beast stars Emma Watson of the Harry Potter franchise as Belle and Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey) as the Beast. Luke Evans (Dracula Untold) and Josh Gad (Frozen) have signed on to play the villainous Gaston and LeFou. It is directed by Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn) and is expected to keep the Howard Ashman and Alan Menken songbook from the original film.