Beloved Disney Movie Remake Will Be Inspired By The Worst Social Media App

Producer Joe Russo says the live-action remake of Hercules will be inspired by TikTok

By Michileen Martin | Published 2 years ago

A live-action remake of the 1997 Disney animated musical Hercules is on the way, and according to producer Joe Russo it will be inspired by TikTok. Joe Russo and his brother Anthony count the remake as one of the many upcoming projects they’re working on, and this week they told Variety they were looking to the popular social media app for inspiration on how to adapt the original. Joe Russo also said the new Hercules will deviate from the 1997 film a bit more than the other recent live-action remakes.

Joe Russo told Variety the Hercules remake will be “a little bit more experimental in tone, a little bit more experimental in execution.” He added later, “Audiences today have been trained by TikTok, right? What is their expectation of what that musical looks like and feels like?”

Neither of the Russo brothers expanded upon what they meant by using TikTok as a barometer of audience expectation or how it will impact the remake, but the fact that Guy Ritchie will be directing film could point toward some answers. Ever since his earlier work on features like 2000’s Snatch, Ritchie has been known for memorable action scenes bursting with energy using very quick camera cuts and slow-mo. Joe Russo could be hinting Ritchie will be using these kinds of techniques in song and dance numbers, as opposed to the the boxing matches of Snatch or 2009’s Sherlock Holmes.

But when you consider some of the hallmarks of TikTok, Russo’s words can lean pretty hard towards concerning. The video app–initially getting a reputation primarily for teens to dance and lip-synch–has gotten much more diverse content since its 2016 release, but certain trends still rule the roost. Bite-sized pieces of songs are applied to videos, usually for comedic effect, and it’s done so often that those using the app hardly ever know the name or source of the song but rather as “that TikTok song.”

For example with the recent release of Taylor Swift’s alb um Midnights, a few bars from “Anti-Hero”–“It’s me/Hi!/I’m the problem, it’s me”–are heard throughout thousands (if not more) TikToks; applied to anything from a lip-synching teen relating to the singer, to a pet owner “blaming” their beloved animals for a less organized home. You can find a good example below, with a TikTok humorously targeting a pup for messing with the cushions.

But the question is exactly how will this translate into TikTok influencing Hercules? Does this mean rather than full songs, the remake will feature snippets of the tunes repeated over and over until you not only can chiefly remember those few lyrics, but they play in your head non-stop like crazy circus music? Does it mean rather than hire professional dancers, they’re just going to grab some 12-year-olds to put together their own dance numbers in front of a gas station?

However TikTok inspires the Hercules remake, we’re still waiting to hear who will be in the thing. There’s been a huge void of casting news for the flick, though Bruce Campbell has made it clear he’s open to playing Hades, while Danny DeVito said if they don’t bring him back to play Phil, “they don’t have a hair on their ass.”