Disney’s live-action Medusa movie is in the works, and we have so many questions about how the studio will handle her story

Disney’s next live-action project isn’t a remake of an animated classic, finally. According to Deadline, the studio is developing an original live-action Medusa movie. Dwayne Johnson’s Seven Bucks banner is producing, and Michael Montemayor has reportedly been tapped to write the first draft.

Yes, that Medusa. The snake-haired Gorgon of Greek myth, whose gaze turns people to stone, has been a movie monster since the stop-motion days. She has also been a pop culture punchline and a Percy Jackson villain along the way. Now, she’s headlining a Disney film, which is not a sentence anyone would have predicted a decade ago.

Details are thin, to put it mildly. No director, cast, or release date has been announced, and the project is at the earliest stage of development, so it could change shape or never leave the writers’ room. Still, the people already attached tell us a fair amount about where this might be headed.

Who is behind it

Montemayor is the writer of Disney’s live-action Tangled, which is set for release on March 31, 2028. He is also working on Stepsisters, an original live-action Cinderella spin-off.

Seven Bucks, meanwhile, gives the project some serious star power behind the scenes. Johnson has spent years building a slate around big, mythic spectacle, and a Gorgon fits that mold neatly.

The Medusa problem

In the best-known version of the myth, from Ovid, Medusa was a mortal woman assaulted by Poseidon in Athena’s temple. Athena then punished her, not him, by turning her hair to snakes. Modern retellings have spent years reclaiming her as a victim rather than a villain, and any new Medusa movie will be judged against that conversation.

That puts Disney in a tricky spot. The myth is dark, and the studio’s brand is famously not. Will this be a story that actually grapples with who the monster is and who made her one? Or will we get a sanitized “misunderstood creature” arc with the hard parts sanded off like Cruella? Nobody knows yet, and the answer will probably decide whether this film lands as a bold reinvention or a safe one.

What happens next

For now, this is a story about a script that doesn’t exist yet. Keep an eye out for a director announcement, since that will say far more about the tone than any producer credit can. And if you were hoping for the Rock to turn up as a demigod with eyebrows to match, well, that is pure speculation. But no one would be shocked.

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