‘Ella Enchanted’ returns as series with Anne Hathaway producing

The story of a girl cursed with obedience is making a comeback. “Ella Enchanted” will return twenty-two years after the original film, but this time as a TV series.

According to Deadline, Disney+ is developing a new adaptation of "Ella Enchanted," the 1997 novel by Gail Carson Levine.  Anne Hathaway, who starred as Ella in the 2004 original, is now attached as an executive producer. There is no confirmation yet if she will also reprise her role, especially since the protagonist is suppossed to be 16 years old. 

The new iteration is said to keep the core idea of Ella’s “gift” of obedience, but it moves away from being mainly a Cinderella-style romance. Instead, it leans more into a coming-of-age story, with a boarding school setting that wasn’t part of the original film.

The original film also featured Hugh Dancy as Prince Charmont and Cary Elwes as the villain Edgar, but it’s still unclear which characters from the movie will carry over or be reimagined in the series.

The series will be written by Ilana Wolpert, with Beth Schwartz serving as showrunner. Wolpert previously worked on Disney+’s “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.” Hathaway is executive producing alongside Jonathan Rice and her husband, Adam Shulman.

The project also continues Hathaway’s long-running relationship with Disney, which includes early roles like The Other Side of Heaven and The Princess Diaries, both of which helped establish her as a major star.