Brandy Norwood is reprising her history-making role as Cinderella in the musical Descendants: Rise of Red. News of the singer/actress’ filming was confirmed via footage from the Disney+ movie’s social media accounts.
Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella was released in 1997 and featured Brandy in the title role, Paolo Montalban as Prince Charming, the iconic Whitney Houston as the fairy godmother, and Whoopi Goldberg. Houston also executive produced the project.
Footage from Descendants showed Brandy as the new queen, opposite Montalban’s now-king. Per Variety, which confirmed Brandy’s involvement in November, the film puts the king and queen’s daughter (played by Mia Baker) and the Queen of Hearts’ daughter (played by Kylie Cantrall) on an adventure to save their home—the kingdom of Auradon.
The film, which was originally called The Pocketwatch, is the fourth in the Descendants series. The project first premiered on the Disney Channel in 2015 and brought in 6 million viewers. The franchise then released entries in 2017 and 2019.
The musical, which is written by Dan Frey and Russell Sommer, will also star Rita Ora as the tyrannical Queen of Hearts, who is said to rule her province with an iron fist.
Reprisals of some of Disney’s most notorious villains will include China Anne McClain as Uma, daughter of sea witch Ursula; Dara Reneé as Ursula’s sister Ulyana; and Joshua Colley as Hook.
In her original 1997 role, Brandy became the first Black Disney princess in a live-action version of the classic story. As Cinderella, Brandy donned micro-braids (her signature hairstyle of the ’90s). This time she’s wearing an ice-blue long-pontytail with her crown.
The Jennifer Phang-directed Descendants: Rise of Red hasn’t gotten a release date yet.