Disney's live-action adaptations of its animated classics have been undeniably hit-or-miss, with some very good efforts (The Lion King and Cinderella, for example), and a few bad ones (last year's Pinocchio instantly springs to mind, as does the Maleficent sequel).
There is, however, a lot of excitement for Hercules, especially with Aladdin director Guy Ritchie at the helm and Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo producing. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings writer, David Callaham, has been tapped to write the script and was thought to be hard at work on that prior to the WGA strike beginning earlier this year.
While writers have had to down tools, the SAG-AFTRA strike means actors are also on the picket lines. Until the strike ends, they're unable to meet with studios about future roles, so we'd caution taking any casting rumours with a pinch of salt for now.
If scooper Daniel Richtman is to be believed, though, Ariana Grande (Wicked) and Taron Egerton (Kingsman: The Secret Service) are reportedly being eyed for the roles of Hercules and Meg in the remake.
This isn't the first time we've seen Grande's name come up in regard to Meg, and with the singer looking to break into acting, it's a role we can definitely imagine her being well-suited for. As for Egerton, he's an immense talent and it's been too long since we've seen him take centre stage in a blockbuster.
Hercules was released by Disney in 1997 and earned positive reviews. It earned $252.7 million worldwide and followed the story of Hercules, a son of gods, who was snatched as a baby by Hades and forced to live among mortals as a half-man, half-god. As a teenager, the demi-god needed to perform a rite of passage on Earth to prove himself worthy of living with the gods on Mount Olympus.
From there, with his plucky satyr sidekick, Phil, along for the ride, Hercules learned how to use his strength to defeat a series of evil creatures, falling in love with Meg and battling the evil Hades.
The Russos have said this take on Hercules will be inspired by TikTok, comments which caused concern among many fans. As of now, no release date has been revealed and it's unclear how far into production the movie was before Hollywood came to a standstill.