Disney has canceled the Princess Tiana series, and I’m frustrated

Disney is not doing very well in terms of representation right now.

In 2020, Disney announced that a new show starring Princess Tiana, the first Black Disney princess, was in the works. This was titled Tiana, and actress Anika Noni Rose was returning to voice the character. Except, now it’s been canceled, apparently because long-form streaming content (like TV shows) isn’t something the animation arm of Disney wants to do anymore. According to The Hollywood Reporter, who broke the story, “Tiana ultimately could not get to where it needed to be given production costs.” There was, apparently, not enough money in the vast Disney budget for a Tiana TV show.

It’s galling though, because I love The Princess and the Frog and I was looking forward to getting a whole TV show out of it, especially since it was supposed to be a musical. It seemed like it would essentially be a Princess and the Frog sequel in TV form and I was really up for that.

I had noticed for a while that Tiana was underutilized regarding the Disney Princess line. There seemed to be prejudice inherent in how little merchandise was produced around her character, and her presence at the Disney Parks never seemed to amount to much. I remember visiting Disneyland Paris in 2017 and not finding any Tiana-based merchandise. I was annoyed then, and I’m annoyed now.

Lots of people aren’t happy about Tiana’s show being canned

Social media users are calling Disney out for the show’s cancellation. Some people have brought up an old criticism from when The Princess and the Frog first came out—although Disney promoted Tiana as the first Black Disney princess, she spends far more time as a frog in her movie than she does as a human person. “It is 2025 and still the only black Disney princess is Tiana and we can’t even get actual media of her other than 25 minutes of her as a human in her film,” wrote one user on X/Twitter.

Others took the cancellation as a sign of the anti-DEI times. “I’m still not over Princess Tiana [s]how being canceled,” wrote X user Bella. “The way Black girl content has been handled and treated by Disney and a lot of the fans has left me so disheartened and tired. If it’s not their mostly conservative higher-ups, it’s the racist, misogynistic, and transphobic sector of the fanbase. Being a Disney fan as a Black Trans Girl is starting to feel like a glutton for punishment.” The Disney/Pixar show Win or Lose was supposed to feature a Black trans girl, but her trans identity was cut at the last minute, a show of pure cowardice from Disney and Pixar in a time where it’s terrifying to be out as a trans person.

Tiana isn’t even the only Black woman-led show Disney has canceled recently. Black Panther fan favorite Okoye, the Wakandan warrior, was all set to get her own show on Disney+, following in the footsteps of white characters such as Loki and Hawkeye—but now, the project is no more. It feels like Disney is regressing when it comes to telling Black stories, and a dangerous and upsetting pattern is emerging.