The Walt Disney Company has been making headlines for its box office performance for both the best and worst reasons. And right now, one specific underperformance seems to be doing more than just sting in the moment. According to the report, following the live-action remake of Moana coming in woefully underperforming at the box office, Disney is already moving on to its next play.

That next play, at least in reported development, is a new live-action Princess and the Frog movie. The report says Colman Domingo, the Euphoria icon, is reportedly writing the film, with the project tied to Princess Tiana. In other words, Disney is not just looking for another remake. It is trying to reset what it thinks will travel to audiences, and it is doing it quickly.

This matters because the broader Disney picture in the source is a study in contrasts. The company has had major wins alongside major misses, and those swings are not subtle. On the “best” side, Pixar is highlighted as the big winner so far this year, landing with the original sci-fi comedy Hoppers and the wildly successful Toy Story 5. The source goes as far as calling Toy Story 5 practically guaranteed to be the next billion-dollar movie after The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.

On the “worst” side, Disney's recent misses include The Mandalorian and Grogu becoming one of the lowest-grossing Star Wars movies ever made, and then the more immediate problem, the live-action remake of Moana underperforming. When you put those together, you can see the incentive pressure building. Studios do not just chase creativity, they chase predictability, and box office results reset internal confidence fast. A low-performing tentpole can cause teams to scramble, rethink positioning, and accelerate development on the next asset that is supposed to stabilize the slate.

From a corporate governance standpoint, these kinds of pivots are the kind of thing boards and executives watch closely, even when the public storyline stays upbeat. Decisions about creative leadership, script development, casting attachment, and franchise direction all ripple into budget discipline. While the source does not provide specific internal numbers or board deliberations, it does show the kind of momentum Disney has been experiencing across units. Pixar is being framed as winning, while certain live-action franchise plays are being framed as stumbling.

There is also a marketplace logic behind why a live-action Princess and the Frog project would be timed to a Moana stumble. Live-action remakes are typically designed to leverage brand recognition, familiar IP, and known audience demand. When one misses, the question becomes whether the issue was the adaptation itself, the marketing angle, the release context, or the audience’s appetite for remakes at that moment. The source does not specify which of those is the culprit for Moana. But it does underline the fact of the problem: “woefully underperforming.” That kind of language tends to correlate with a push for corrective action, which is exactly what the reported “Colman Domingo writing” development represents.

For decision-makers in media and entertainment, another layer is regulatory and compliance friction in production planning. The source does not cite regulators directly, but the broader background is that film and television production often intersects with a patchwork of compliance needs, from labor and workplace standards to location and tax incentive requirements. When a studio feels financial pressure from underperformance, it may also seek to reduce uncertainty, and a fast move into a high-profile development path can be a way to keep schedules aligned and teams resourced. Even when the public sees “new movie announced,” internally it can be about resource reallocation after a box office miss.

Second-order implications are where executives earn their keep. If Pixar is delivering hits while certain franchise live-action efforts are missing, the studio has to decide whether it should concentrate risk in animation, rebalance leadership and creative inputs across divisions, or simply find different strengths in different IP. The reported Domingo writing credit ties the Princess and the Frog project to an “Euphoria icon,” which signals that Disney is also thinking about cultural gravity, not just story familiarity. That can matter in how films perform in modern attention markets, where audience pull is often driven by perceived credibility, not only brand.

Ultimately, the strategic stakes here are about momentum and credibility. Disney’s next slate cannot afford to look like a chain of reactionary misses, especially while other units, like Pixar, are catching fire. The report frames an unfolding narrative: wins that feel easy to imagine, and misses that force the studio to scramble. For peers watching from the outside, the lesson is clear. Box office outcomes quickly become development decisions, and development decisions become financial expectations. In this cycle, Disney is reportedly trying to turn a Moana underperformance into a faster, more compelling next bet with Colman Domingo writing Princess and the Frog, centered on Princess Tiana.