Disney Is Making a Gaston Movie and I’m Still Not Convinced He's Even a Villain

Disney just announced a live-action Gaston movie is in the works and I have to sit with this for a second because, yes, I genuinely blinked twice. Gaston? The buff, arrogant, slightly sweaty hunter from Beauty and the Beast? The guy who literally dies because he tried to drag a sentient castle down a mountain like it was a gym challenge? We are giving this man a whole movie?

Look, Gaston is iconic. Everyone knows his theme song. He has more bravado than a herd of teenagers, and he cheerfully invents his own fanclub during musical numbers. And yeah, he was pretty evil in the original - narcissistic, violent, self-serving, and bullying everyone in sight. But is he a villain on the level of Maleficent or Scar or Cruella? In my mind he's more of a misguided meathead than a true villain. Like the kind of guy who would give pep talks in a frat house while missing the entire point of morality.

Which brings me to the bigger trend: why does Hollywood suddenly feel the need to turn every antagonist into a misunderstood antihero with feelings and a "backstory"? I get the appeal of Maleficent - she was wronged, she had depth, the whole movie basically said "complex villain energy." Cruella had style, sure, and her origin story had some genuinely interesting angles. But Gaston? Are we really interested in a whole movie about why the guy carried a turkey leg everywhere?

Are we collectively so anxious about celebrating purely entertaining villainy that we now have to sanitize every antagonist into someone we can root for, hug, and morally justify? Scar needs a redemption arc now? The Wicked Witch in Oz is getting an origin story that turns out she was just misunderstood and loves gardening? What is next - The Misadventures of Lord Farquaad where he was bullied at school for being short?

Look, I understand that we like depth and nuance, and that giving a character a full narrative arc can be interesting. But let's not forget why we love some characters in the first place. Gaston doesn't work because he's misunderstood. He works because he is ridiculous, overconfident, and unapologetically extra in all the funniest ways. There's craft in straight up villainy, in a buff dude convinced that the world revolves around his biceps.

So yes, I'm cautiously curious. I won't say "never." But I'm also not ready to sign a petition demanding we fully justify every single antagonist in every single story. Some villains are fun because they are villains. Gaston was never a sympathetic threat. He was the guy with that absurd song, that ridiculous ego, and the muscular gait of someone who thinks mirrors exist to admire him. That's fine. That's enough.

Let's see what Disney does. But personally? I would have loved a movie about the Enchanted Objects trying to unionize. Same energy. Less biceps.