Ella Enchanted Joins a Growing List of Upcoming Cinderella Streaming Series

In a surprising announcement from Deadline yesterday, we learned that Disney+ is planning to turn Ella Enchanted into a streaming series. Before you get excited about seeing a new adaptation of the beloved Gail Carson Levine novel that many of us grew up with, keep in mind that the press release specifically states "a TV series based on the 2004 Miramax film." This is troublesome considering that the movie has many flaws that prevent it from topping a list of live-action "Cinderella" adaptations, as well as the fact that the streaming services are currently oversaturated with new adaptations of the classic fairy tale. Since the project is still in its early stages, there is also a possibility that it won't even, considering Disney's track record of announcing new princess projects that never see the light of day.

Whenever a movie gets adapted into a series, the biggest issue is whether there's enough additional content to stretch into an episodic format. Even though Ella Enchanted was based on a novel, the book was relatively short and had additional story content added to stretch it out for the 2004 film, which was never intended to be a full series. According to the Deadline article, this problem is being addressed by setting the series in a boarding school and focusing on Ella's day-to-day life as a student who is forced to magically obey her strict teachers and is bullied by peers who misunderstand her curse or take advantage of it. This premise can work well for a show because it creates the potential for each episode to give Ella a new problem to deal with after her obedience curse forces her to incite something she doesn't want. However, the school setting also makes it practically unrecognizable as a "Cinderella" adaptation, with little to no mention of romance.

The Ella Enchanted series is now the fourth direct-to-streaming "Cinderella" project that has been announced in the unforeseen future, and the third one under the Disney+ umbrella. The only one that is not sanctioned by Disney is Steps, an original Netflix movie about Cinderella's not-so-wicked stepsister. It's questionable whether Disney's upcoming Stepsisters, which was announced a few months later, was created to directly compete with Netflix's film or if the timing was merely a coincidence. The other upcoming Disney+ series is being produced by Jennifer Lopez and is based specifically on the Rodgers and Hammerstein adaptation of the story. However, that project has not announced any new updates in over a year, so it's possible the Ella Enchanted series was created to quietly replace it unless Disney intends to release both shows simultaneously.

Regardless of how the series will be executed, this announcement poses the question of whether or not it is something that fans of the original actually want. It is almost unanimous among people who grew up with the Levine novel that the movie did not meet their expectations as a proper adaptation. Since the series was announced as a spin-off of the movie and not the book, it follows that it is unlikely to appeal to the fan base. However, the movie did not portray Ella attending boarding school. The book did. So, this leads to the possibility that the press release only cites the movie as a source because the new show is being produced by the original film's star, Anne Hathaway, to give her a deeper connection to the project. If that's the case, and the series is actually a more accurate portrayal of the book, it could be exactly what fans have been waiting for all these years.

The announcement of the Ella Enchanted series on Disney+ comes with a lot of speculation and confusion about the decision to adapt so many different "Cinderella" adaptations at the same time. While the boarding school premise could work for episodic storytelling, it strays from the classic "Cinderella" vibe with no mention of Prince Charmont as a character in this version. With Disney's track record of canceling shows and the oversaturation of Cinderella adaptations, fans are right to be skeptical. But if it ends up being a truer adaptation of Gail Carson Levine's beloved novel, it might just be worth the wait. Would you like to see a new show inspired by Ella Enchanted? Let me know in the comments!