Zachary Levi might be a natural choice to play Flynn Rider if Disney ends up doing a live-action remake of Tangled, but the Shazam star thinks he might be a bit too old for the role. Disney has been churning out live-action remakes lately. In the past few years, we’ve seen remakes of The Jungle Book and Beauty and the Beast, while 2019 is positively brimming with live-action releases – Dumbo, Aladdin, The Lion King and Lady and the Tramp included. Remakes of Mulan and The Little Mermaid are set for release next year, and down the line other Disney classics like Pinocchio, Lilo & Stitch and The Hunchback of Notre Dame are getting the live-action treatment too.
So far Disney has left its more recent classics like Tangled, Frozen and Moana alone, but if the current wave is anything to go by, those movies might get a live-action remake themselves in the not too distant future. There’s certainly enough enthusiasm for a Tangled remake should Disney decide to make one. Just last year, a photo of Cher and Amanda Seyfried in which they bore an uncanny resemblance to Tangled’s heroine Rapunzel and villain Mother Gothel was enough to spark a fan campaign for a live-action remake of the 2010 animated film. If a Tangled remake did happen, it would make sense that Levi – who originally voiced Flynn Rider – get first refusal for the role.
However, Levi thinks his age might be an obstacle in playing Flynn once again. Comic Book reports that at CCXP Cologne, Levi was asked which Disney prince he’d most like to play in a live-action movie. His reply is below:
“As much as I would love to play Flynn Rider in a live-action Tangled, by the time they get around to that, I don’t think I’m gonna be the right guy to play that role [laughs]. I’ll be there coaching that guy, I’ll make sure he understands what that smolder means, but I think my hair will be like Steve Martin white by the time they do a live-action Tangled. So in lieu of playing Flynn Rider in a live-action Tangled, I would say, I don’t know… Ariel from The Little Mermaid, maybe.”
Well, unfortunately for Levi the role of Ariel in The Little Mermaid remake is already taken, so that possibility of seeing the actor in a clamshell bra is sadly ruled out. Whether or not he’s too old to play Flynn again, Levi will probably be too busy shooting Shazam sequels to make a Tangled remake anyway.
Regardless, any future remakes not already in development could depend on how the current live-action remakes continue to perform. Though many of Disney’s recent remakes have raked in tons at the box office, they haven’t always fared so well with critics. In fact, as Screen Rant recently reported, The Lion King is the sixth of Disney’s live-action remakes to get a “rotten” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. With that in mind, a Tangled remake might not be in the cards after all.
