Anne Hathaway to return for 'Ella Enchanted' reboot: Sparks mixed reactions from fans

Dubai: Disney+ is revisiting one of its early-2000s fantasy favourites and this time, it’s bringing back the star who helped define it.

Anne Hathaway is officially attached as an executive producer on a newly developing Ella Enchanted television series at Disney+, marking a full-circle return to the world of the 2004 cult-fantasy film in which she played the title role.

Based on Gail Carson Levine’s 1997 novel Ella Enchanted and loosely adapted into the 2004 Miramax film starring Hathaway, the upcoming series is currently in early development and has not yet been given a release date.

According to reports, Disney+ is reimagining the story for streaming audiences with a fresh creative direction while still holding on to its core premise: a teenage girl, Ella of Frell, who is cursed at birth with the 'gift' of obedience, forcing her to comply with any command she hears.

According to Deadline, the new adaptation is being shaped as a coming-of-age fantasy drama, shifting away from the film’s more whimsical, fairy-tale-romance tone.

Instead of centring purely on royal romance and magical satire like the 2004 movie, the series is expected to lean into Ella’s formative years particularly a boarding school setting where she navigates friendship, identity, and the emotional limits of her curse.

That school environment draws more directly from elements in Levine’s original book, including Ella’s experiences of isolation, bullying, and self-discovery during her education.

Fans are divided, some are calling it a perfect candidate for a modern reboot, excited to see a nostalgic favourite reimagined for a new generation. Others, however, feel the growing wave of remakes in Hollywood has gone too far, arguing that the industry should be investing more in original stories instead of revisiting existing titles.

The series is written by Ilana Wolpert, who previously worked on Anyone but you and is being co-produced by Miramax Television and Paramount Television Studios. Hathaway joins the project as an executive producer alongside collaborators including her husband Adam Shulman.

This new series arrives during a broader Disney trend of reworking legacy titles into long-form streaming narratives, where character-driven arcs and expanded world-building can replace condensed film storytelling.