Tiana is heading back to the bayou. A brand-new animated special set in the world of The Princess and the Frog is now in active production at Walt Disney Animation Studios for Disney+, with new songs and members of the original voice cast returning, the studio’s chief creative officer, Jared Bush, has confirmed.
Bush shared the news in an interview with Collider at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival, where he was asked about the studio’s smaller slate of original programming for the streamer. “Well, there is something we’ve actually been working on,” he said. “It is a special set in the world of The Princess and the Frog. We are really moving on that right now. So, that’s actually in active production. That will be out to people soon. New songs. Original cast. It is pretty spectacular.”
The project is a single, complete musical story, closer in shape to a television special than to a series, and it is not a bundle of shorts. “I’d say it probably will feel more like a special to people,” Bush said. “It’s not shorts. It’s a full story with a lot of songs as part of it.” Disney has not announced which original cast members are back, what the story involves, how long the special will run, or when it will premiere. “We have not announced a specific timing of that yet,” Bush added.
The confirmation lands about a year and a half after Disney shelved Tiana, the musical series that would have continued the princess’s story on Disney+ with Anika Noni Rose back in the role. Announced in 2020, the series was canceled in March 2025 as the studio stepped back from long-form animation made for streaming, and a separate special was already in early development at that point. Bush’s update is the first confirmation that the special has moved forward into production with the original cast involved.
The original film arrived in 2009, directed by Ron Clements and John Musker with songs by Randy Newman, and introduced Tiana, Disney’s first Black princess, voiced by Anika Noni Rose, alongside Bruno Campos as Prince Naveen, Keith David as Dr. Facilier, Michael-Leon Wooley as Louis, Jim Cummings as Ray and Jenifer Lewis as Mama Odie. It also brought Disney back to hand-drawn animation, a style the studio had largely set aside. Whether the new special will use that same hand-drawn look is one of the details Disney has not shared yet, and it is the question longtime fans will be asking first.
For now, the original The Princess and the Frog is streaming on Disney+. The new special has no premiere date yet, so watch for casting and timing details as production moves forward.