10 Things I Want to See in the Disney Live-Action Hercules

Poster Description: The celebrities are listed horizontally (Zane Phillips. Michael Keaton, Jodie Comer, Danny DeVito, Jennifer Hudson, Stanley Tucci, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost), written in white capitals. They hover in a bright blue sky with swirly clouds lit by the sun in pink and orange on the right side of the poster. Hercules is written in gold above the trees and cliffs surrounding Olympus. The temples have many pillars and pointed roofs. The date 2027 is written in Roman numerals as MMXXVII.

Back in 2020, I swore off live-action Disney remakes. Why? They render so many much-loved stories to soulless husks, coasting on audience nostalgia to justify their existence, all for the sake of profit.

I can admit to feeling smug because, since I reviewed the “live-action” The Lion King, five more of these films have been made, and none have left any mark, at least not for positive reasons. Nevertheless, Disney keeps making these irritating skid marks. Just from the recent D23 Expo, we have three live-action adaptations coming in 2025. True, Stitch looks pretty cute for the remake, but Mufasa looks increasingly asinine, and Snow White truly needs to give us something utterly groundbreaking to justify touching the film that launched Disney in the first place.

And yet.

AND YET.

I'm excited about the Hercules film coming in 2027. Based on the Greek legend, Hercules is the son of Zeus and Hera. Stolen away by the God of the Underworld, Hades, Hercules is stripped of his immortality but keeps his god-like strength, and to return to Olympus, he must become a true hero, with help from the winged horse Pegasus and Phil the satyr.

2027 is a long way off, so details for the film are sparse right now, but there is potential for it to be amazing. I'm not expecting any of my wishes to be acknowledged in any way, nor am I saying I definitely will/will not watch Hercules when they release a trailer. This is just a bit of fun.

Image Description: (Left) Zane Phillips has short, blonde hair and stares off into the distance. His expression looks expectant, and he holds something wrapped in his right hand. Phillips has a bare, muscular chest which is shiny with sweat. His thick arms are raised out of the frame. (Right) Hercules is a cartoon man wearing a blue cape, red sweatband, and chiselled bronze tunic. Brown bands adorn his wrists, and he has a brown belt. The buckle is round, gold with a sigil of a lightning bolt through a cloud. Hercules has floppy, strawberry-blonde hair, and he beams apologetically with large arms up as if holding something up.

1) Hercules is played by an unknown actor

In my research for this blog, I was blown away by the number of Hercules TV shows and films throughout the years on IMDB.com alone. For this new adaptation in 2027, Zane Phillips will take on the titular role. He's a relatively unknown actor, which is a good sign because a familiar face could be distracting – and he certainly has a lovely face for a shy god-to-be.

Image Description: Painted within a large, decorative oval, the five Muses stand on the side of a Greek vase. They are women of various shapes and sizes in different styles of white dresses and togas and elaborate hairstyles.

2) Enter the divas!

Fans have been conjecturing their dream cast for the Muses for years. The five divas are iconic, narrating the story with mighty musical numbers, all requiring pathos and humour. So, learning Jennifer Hudson will play one of the Muses made me feel the first hopeful flutter. She has the charisma and the ideal voice for "The Gospel Truth" and "Zero to Hero," but who else could feature? Janelle Monae was suitably sassy in Hidden Figures and has a great voice, too, albeit softer than Hudson's, but that's fine because the Muses have different styles. Ariana Grande was initially speculated to play Meg (more on her later), but her singing voice would be too big for the character.

No other actresses have been confirmed yet for the ensemble, but if done right, the Muses could be the film's best part, introducing those amazing songs to a whole new generation!

Image Description: Framed in white light, Zeus and Hera stand close together, holding hands. Zeus has a giant hand on Hera’s shoulder. He has golden skin, draped in a purple toga with a lightning bolt sigil holding it in place. Zeus has long, pale curls, a square beard, a prominent bottom lip, and an indulgent smile. Hera is pink and sparkling with a long neck and round face. She has yellow waves of hair secured by a pointed pink tiara. She smiles happily.

3) And then along came Zeus!

In April 2024, it was announced the Russo brothers – yes, those Russo brothers – would make the remake. While I hope they don’t overdo the quippy one-liners they scatter so liberally over their MCU movies, I want them to do one thing: it could just be a cheeky, throwaway line, but I want them to acknowledge how Zeus cannot keep it in his pants. Seriously. If they’re going to make it “modern” and “experimental,” they could honour the Greek myths which are full of Zeus’s (ick) conquests. As of 2024, he has yet to be cast, but I hope the Russos will give Hera more to do than in the 1997 film because in the myths, she is vengeful as all hell, which could be fun, and it will give her more depth beyond being Hercules’ mother. How likely is this to happen? Probably not very, because Zeus in the original seemed too nice, and Disney is too afraid to take any risks, but I can still amuse myself with the possibilities.

Image Description: Hades has a long grey face with dark lips and hooded eyes that pierce round and yellow. His brow is arched, and he smiles crookedly with pointed teeth. He wears a black toga. Dark, sulphurous clouds mass in the sky.

4) Michael Keaton as Hades!

Along with his incredible character design, James Woods’ vocal performance made Hades memorable. Part devious car salesman and part gay best friend, Hades was menacing, explosive, and hilarious. I can’t tell you the number of times my sister and I have said, “Olympus would be that way!” just because we enjoy saying it.

(Finding out what happened to James Woods was strange. Never have I read “patriotic reasons” as an excuse for an agent to drop an actor…).

Nonetheless, the decision to cast Michael Keaton as the villain is exciting. He has been Batman and Ken in Toy Story 3, so Keaton has excellent range as an actor. Moreover, Hades has always been grossly misunderstood as a Greek god because he is the God of the Underworld. Apparently, that’s shorthand for evil, so knowing what the Russo brothers will do with him could be interesting. If they must have a new song, I predict they will shoe-horn in one for Hades, which begs whether Michael Keaton can sing well enough.

Image Description: Nick Frost and Simon Pegg stand with their heads together. Both wear spectacles. Pegg has one arm wrapped around Frost’s broad shoulders, the other holding Frost’s bearded chin. While Pegg has bleached blonde hair and a worried, sidelong expression, Frost gurns gormlessly.

5) Pain and Panic

Originally voiced by Matt Frewer and Bobcat Goldthwait (yes, that IS his name), Pain and Panic are Hades’ pitiful lackeys. Who are we getting for the remake? Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

I’m British, so I will always have a soft spot for this duo. The Cornetto Trilogy segmented their talent and chemistry as a couple—I mean, they were best friends and were as fun as Thompson and Thomson in The Adventures of Tintin.

Image Description: Panic is taking “pain in the butt” a little too literally here. He is long and thin turquoise, and his horns wedged in Panic’s backside, forcing him to lie horizontally in the air. He holds a hand against his head in a salute. In contrast, Pain is a round, pink demon with tiny wings. He turns to the side, revealing Panic in his awkward pose.

With Pain and Panic, less time with them will be better to avoid them becoming annoying. I suggest they do something different from the Minions from the Despicable Me franchise to prevent jumping on that tedious bandwagon to make the film memorable. Russo brothers, please give Pain and Panic important roles beyond comic relief.

6) More Gods! More Goddesses!

Stanley Tucci is going to play Hermes, the messenger of the Gods, so I want to know whether there are plans for Hermes to have a more significant part in the film (I wondered if he’d voiced him in 1997, but that was Paul Shaffer). In the myths, Hermes is a child prodigy and a trickster in later life, and I really liked his hippie character design from the animated movie.

Image Description: Outlined in white light, Hermes has blue skin, a white toga, and purple sunglasses. His golden helmet has wings, as do his dark, open-toed sandals. He carries a golden sceptre with a winged serpent wrapped around the staff. Unlike Zeus, Hermes has a potbelly.

If Hermes is getting more developed, I want more of the Gods and Goddesses to appear. As I mentioned in point 3, introducing Hades’ wife, Persephone could put a unique spin on the story, mainly because she has been represented in many ways in the media. Would she be an innocent maiden trapped in the Underworld with her volatile husband or a vengeful woman looking to thwart his plans to take over Olympus? Persephone could be an unexpected ally for Hercules, reminiscent of Rosario Dawson’s interpretation in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. Alternatively, we could have a completely new version where Persephone lives up to the various badass meanings of her name – “She who destroys the light?” Hell yeah! – and take on a role like Lady Macbeth, siding with Hades to eliminate Zeus. I just want a film about Persephone and her husband, because they have always fascinated me.

So much sass in one picture!

Image Description: Caught in the meaty hand of a centaur, Meg looks thoroughly fed up with one hand propping up her face while the other dangles.

7) Keep Meg…Meg!

Susan Egan gave us a sarcastic, world-weary Meg, but I am eager for Jodie Comer’s version. Best known for Villanelle in Killing Eve, Comer has the acting chops to build on what we know. I hope the Russo brothers keep her gritty, self-depreciative, and far from perfect. After all, she is Hades’ henchwoman, a damsel in distress who can handle it until she falls head over heels for Hercules.

8) Better CGI

I’m thinking of Pegasus because I love him, and the thought of a hyper-realistic version of him makes me nervous. At the same time, I want the film style to call back to the swirly knees/elbows aesthetic from the original just to see how it will look.

9) Give Danny DeVito a new script

DeVito has spoken out about how he’d love to play Phil again—and who could do it better, anyway? My concern is that the script will remain the same, and we’ll have the same problem we had with James Earl Jones in the “live-action” Lion King, where he sounded tired of repeating those lines.

Also, I don’t want the script to ignore that Phil is a lecherous satyr. Yes, he gives me the ick, but that’s the point! He’s meant to be gross. That’s part of his charm.

Side note: I hate how the new films try to gloss over the weirder parts of the cartoons, fearing for impressionable young audiences. I haven’t forgiven Tim Burton for removing Pink Elephants On Parade from his live-action Dumbo. Yes, it’s my favourite part. No, it didn’t make me want to drink champagne by the bucketful as the weird kid I most definitely was. Disney! Kids aren’t as dumb as you think, so treat them like people.

10) MAKE THE TITANS MORE OF A BIG DEAL!

Here is an opportunity for the live-action film to improve on an aspect of Hercules that has always bothered me. The Titans appear as illustrations on a vase at the start and then for about ten minutes near the end before they are vanquished by Zeus (again). It was a wasted opportunity because their designs are absolutely incredible. That’s what we need. Palpable, high stakes.

Image Description: Beneath a heavy, sulphurous sky, four Titans move across a blackened landscape. A dark tornado leads, with a molten creature of liquid magma, a gaunt figure of ice like the world’s sharpest sculpture, and a bulbous rock creature following on.

I enjoy Hercules for its quirky style, fun humour, and the songs that accompany it. It’s not perfect, but it has plenty of heart, so I worry about what the live-action film will give us. We don’t know for now, but I can still hope for something entertaining, at least!

My Sources:

Poster - https://thedirect.com/article/live-action-hercules-movie-zane-phillips-jodie-comer-release-cast-disney

How many live-action remakes have there been since 2020? - https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/guide/all-disney-live-action-remakes-ranked/

Projects coming up from Disney D23 - https://www.ign.com/articles/everything-announced-at-the-disney-entertainment-showcase-d23-2024

When is the live-action Hercules hitting screens in the UK? - https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=831411132518749&set=a.550878793905319

Development rumours - https://www.cbr.com/russo-bros-live-action-hercules-everything-we-know/

Who is playing Hercules? - https://thedirect.com/article/live-action-hercules-movie-zane-phillips-jodie-comer-release-cast-disney

Zane Phillips’ filmography - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6974163/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_0_nm_8_in_0_q_Zane%2520phill

Image: Zane Phillips and Hercules - https://www.out.com/film/zane-phillips-disney-hercules-live-action-casting

Image: The five Muses - https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Muses

Image: Hera and Zeus - https://liberalarts.indianapolis.iu.edu/programs/classical-studies/hercules-birth-pitch/

What happened to James Woods? - https://www.thethings.com/the-truth-about-why-james-woods-was-cancelled-by-hollywood/