Walt Disney Animation Studios is making a new animated special set in the world of The Princess and the Frog for Disney+, and it is already in active production. Chief Creative Officer Jared Bush confirmed the project to Collider at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival this week, saying it will bring back members of the film’s original cast and include new songs. No release date has been announced.
“New songs. Original cast. It is pretty spectacular,” Bush said, adding that the special would be out to people soon.
Bush described the project as a single, complete story that will play more like a television special than a series. He said it will not be a collection of shorts, and that songs are a big part of it. He held back on runtime and timing, saying Disney has not set a release window yet, and pointed to other projects at the studio built the same way, as a way to revisit worlds audiences want to return to.
Who Is Involved
Disney has not said which original cast members are coming back. Anika Noni Rose voiced Tiana in the 2009 film and was attached to reprise the role in the planned Tiana series, and she has continued voicing the character in Disney+’s LEGO Disney Princess specials. The film’s voice cast also included Bruno Campos as Prince Naveen, Keith David as Dr. Facilier, Jennifer Cody as Charlotte, Michael-Leon Wooley as Louis, Jim Cummings as Ray, Jenifer Lewis as Mama Odie, and Oprah Winfrey as Tiana’s mother, Eudora. None of them have been confirmed for the special.
Joyce Sherri, who was brought on to run the Tiana series, is writing and directing the special. Stephen Anderson, the director behind Meet the Robinsons and Winnie the Pooh, said in 2024 that he was co-directing it.
From Series to Special
Disney first announced Tiana, a musical series continuing the story of The Princess and the Frog, at its Investor Day in December 2020. The show would have followed Tiana as the newly crowned Princess of Maldonia, with her New Orleans past pulling her back. It went through years of delays and creative changes before The Hollywood Reporter reported in March 2025 that Disney had shelved it, as Walt Disney Animation stopped producing long-form content for Disney+. At the time, the studio said a short-form special with a new story was in early development in its place.
Rose posted on Instagram after the cancellation that she was disappointed Tiana’s story would not continue as a series, and asked fans to watch the special in big numbers when it arrives.
Since then, the special stayed quiet. In July 2026, Anderson replied to a fan on X to say the project had not been canceled and that the team was still hard at work on it. Bush’s comments are the first time the studio has confirmed the original cast and new music, and they also indicate the special has grown from the short-form project described in 2025 into a full story.
A Live-Action Tiana Project Is Also in Development
The animated special is one of two Princess and the Frog projects at Disney. Colman Domingo told Entertainment Tonight on the Emmys red carpet in September that he is co-writing a live-action film inspired by the movie with playwright and director Robert O’Hara. Deadline reported in July that the project is an original story centered on Tiana rather than a remake of the 2009 film. It has no release date or production schedule.
The Princess and the Frog is streaming on Disney+.
Sources: Collider | Mickey Blog | Main Street Mouse | WDW News Today | TVLine | BroadwayWorld | Movieguide
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