Later this month, Disney is premiering it’s latest reboot of a beloved classic, “Beauty and The Beast.” With every re-imagined, modernized, or tweaked version of a classic movie comes some new ideas (and with them, new criticism) and nothing has changed with “Beauty and the Beast”— Disney has elected to portay LeFou as explicitly and openly gay, and many are unhappy. For those of you who *aren’t* obsessed with “Beauty and The Beast”, Lefou is the sidekick/bumbling BFF of Gaston, the official Town Hunk who has his eye on bookish Belle.
Josh Gad, who plays LeFou, told USA Today that there’s a moment near the end of the film that highlights LeFou’s sexuality, and he is “honored to have that moment as part of [his] character’s arc.”
While it is a definite subplot to the main love story, LeFou’s newly-explored sexuality has garnered criticism from some, and a handful of theaters have come forward to vow that they won’t show the movie due to the presence of an openly gay character where there wasn’t one in the original film — regardless, the movie is projected to be a huge success (surpassing another recent Disney blockbuster, “Finding Dory”,) with Fandango reporting that early order tickets have already surpassed “Dory” and are tracking closer to “Captain America: Civil War”, which made $1,151,684,349 worldwide.
Catch “Beauty and The Beast” in theaters on March 17th!