Disney’s live-action Hercules remake will be a “more experimental” musical for audiences “trained by TikTok,” producer Joe Russo told Variety.
He and his brother Anthony Russo are producing with Disney through their independent studio AGBO. “I think they’re excited to see what we can all bring to it in a way that isn’t just a reinterpretation of the animated film,” Joe said, explaining that the new Hercules would be “a little bit more experimental in tone, a little bit more experimental in execution.”
The 1997 animated Hercules featured now-iconic song and dance numbers such as the Oscar-nominated “Go the Distance.” Russo said, “There are questions about how you translate it as a musical. Audiences today have been trained by TikTok, right? What is their expectation of what that musical looks like and feels like? That can be a lot of fun and help us push the boundaries a little bit on how you execute a modern musical.”
He added that the director, 54-year-old Aladdin helmer Guy Ritchie, was well-positioned to speak to the TikTok generation: “Guy is perfect for it because he has penchant for experimentation.”
Hercules represents a kind of homecoming for the Russo brothers. They became household names through Disney’s Marvel Studios, directing two Captain America and two Avengers features that still rank among the highest-grossing movies ever made. More recently, they’ve focused on building their own franchises, such as The Gray Man and the upcoming sequel at Netflix.
But with Hercules, they’re re-establishing themselves at Disney. “We have an amazing relationship with them that we’ve built over a decade,” Russo said. “I think we have a point of view on how they can stretch the limits of their IP moving forward, rather than playing IP management.”
That does not include directing Marvel movies, at least any time soon. “We won’t be ready to do anything with Marvel until the end of the decade,” Russo said.