Draft:Tiana (TV special)
Upcoming television special by Walt Disney Animation Studios
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Tiana is an upcoming American animated musical television special produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios for the streaming service Disney+. It is based on the 2009 film The Princess and the Frog by Ron Clements, John Musker, and Rob Edwards. The special is written by Joyce Sherri and directed by Sherri and Steve Anderson.
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Comment: Currently, this might be a case of WP:TOOSOON as references appear to be trivial mentions, short coverage, or non-WP:SIGCOV routine announcements. The Collider piece has four paragraphs, but other than a short analysis of the art style it instead covers other upcoming Disney TV series or routine plot information, so overall is probably not significant coverage. I found this write-up that is decent with some analysis on plot and style and could be added, but on its own WP:GNG isn't met. Though this draft is promising, given that the TV series will be premiere sometime this year or in 2024 per this Disney tweet; therefore more in-depth coverage will be gradually available. Thanks. VickKiang (talk) 02:29, 12 January 2023 (UTC)
- Comment: Is too much of this WP:CRYSTAL??? Mattdaviesfsic (talk) 18:55, 10 January 2023 (UTC)
 | This is a draft article. It is a work in progress open to editing by anyone. Please ensure core content policies are met before publishing it as a live Wikipedia article at Tiana (TV special). Last edited by Historyday01 (talk | contribs) 21 days ago. (Update) |
 | Please note: This draft should not be submitted for review or moved to the mainspace until final animation or voice recording for the series has begun, per the guidelines on notability of future series. |
 | An editor has marked this as a promising draft and requests that, should it go unedited for six months, G13 deletion be postponed, either by making a dummy edit to the page, or by improving it and submitting it for review. Last edited by Historyday01 (talk | contribs) 21 days ago. (Update) |
- Joyce Sherri
- Steve Anderson
| Tiana | |
|---|---|
| Genre | |
| Based on | |
| Written by | Joyce Sherri |
| Directed by |
|
| Starring | Anika Noni Rose |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Producer | Nathan Curtis |
| Production company | Walt Disney Animation Studios |
| Original release | |
| Network | Disney+ |
The project was initially announced as a TV series in December 2020, during Disney's Investor Day. Stella Meghie was set to write and direct the series in November 2021, during Disney+ Day. Sherri joined the series in October 2023. The series was cancelled by March 2025 in favor of a TV special.
Voice cast
Production
Development as a television series
On December 10, 2020, then-Walt Disney Animation Studios chief creative officer Jennifer Lee announced that a musical series titled Tiana, based on the Disney Animated Canon film The Princess and the Frog (2009), was in development at the studio for Disney+.[2] It was also announced in December 2020 that Anika Noni Rose, who voiced Tiana in the film, would be reprising her role in the series.[3] In August 2021 it was announced that Disney Animation was creating "more original storytelling for Disney+," including the Tiana series.[4]
On November 12, 2021, Stella Meghie was announced as writer and director, making her the first Black Canadian director to helm a Walt Disney Animation Studios project.[5] Lee contacted Meghie for the project following the latter's attempt to pitch a live-action remake of The Princess and the Frog.[6][7][8] Meghie was also reported to be executive-producing the series alongside Lee in February 2023,[9] and by October of that year, it was announced that Joyce Sherri would be replacing Meghie as lead writer and director, while Meghie remained as executive producer. It was also reported that Zootopia+ (2022) producer Nathan Curtis would produce the series.[1][10][11] The series was planned to center on Princess Tiana, a restaurant owner and Princess of Maldonia, as she explored her city of New Orleans,[12][13][14] and the kingdom of Maldonia.[14]
According to Lee, Tiana would have explored "a new world" with the title character, in addition to giving her "a new direction [and] a new voice".[15] Animation services for the series would have been provided by Walt Disney Animation Studios' Vancouver studio, with storyboarding and pre-production handled at the Burbank studio.[16] Unlike the original film, which was animated with traditional animation, Tiana was said to be animated in a hybrid animation style utilizing 3D animation, according to Drew Taylor, who cited the Sony Pictures Animation film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) as a direct inspiration on the style.[17]
A first look of Tiana was revealed in 2021,[5] with the series originally scheduled to release in 2022.[18][19][20] The release date was later changed to 2023[21][22] and eventually 2024.[23][1] Also in October 2023, Sherri told Variety that she saw a lot of herself in Tiaa as a "a young Black girl," said that Tiana stood among representations that had shaped her "as a filmmaker...[and] a human being," and described Tiana as representing "an entire diaspora," calling the latter a "lot to put on the shoulders of an animated character."[24] In February 2024, Sherri told the NYU Alumni newsletter that directing and writing for the series was "truly a blessing" and that it was a "dream come true" to add her own "creative voice" to this project, while calling it an "exciting new chapter" of her professional career.[25]
Development as a television special
In March 2025, it was announced that the series had been cancelled due to the studio abandoning making original long-form content for streaming in favor of theatrical feature films. That same month, a short-form television special for Disney+ was being planned, with Sherri still attached as writer and director and Steve Anderson joining as an additional director,[26][27] with no word on when it would be released on Disney+.[28] Following this announcement, Anika Noni Rose stated on social media she was "deeply disappointed" by this development, described the series as a "long time coming," and praised the "beautiful work...put into it by all the creatives involved" while hoping that when the animated special airs, that all the fans of the series, and a sequel to The Princess and the Frog, tune in.[29][30][31] There were reports that fans agreed with Rose's assessment, saying the series was unfairly cancelled or that its cancellation was "a sign of the anti-DEI times."[32][33]
In July 2025, Sivonne Davis, the Walt Disney World Vice President of Marketing Strategy, defended the decision to cancel the animated series and change it into a TV special, to People, stating that "Disney oftentimes has to make different decisions that come in at different times in the year, and they always are trying to tell unique stories" while adding that Tiana's story is still "being told", with other options to bring "that story...to life".[34]
In February 2026, Screenrant called the cancellation of the series a mistake, "unfortunate," and said the series may have "followed Tiana on a journey to the kingdom of Maldonia" according to scant details about the plot.[35]
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