Kidscreen has confirmed that Disney is scrapping the streaming series Tiana, its long-awaited follow-up to 2009 feature film The Princess and the Frog (pictured) that was first teased in December 2020.

The decision is part of a broader shift at Walt Disney Animation Studios to move away from producing long-form Disney+ content. In addition to Tiana, the studio has also axed an unrelated feature-length project that was bound for the streamer but never publicly announced. And going forward, the division plans to focus on one theatrical feature a year, as well as working on other short-form content. 

Princess Tiana—who is a star attraction on the theme park side of Disney’s business—will instead be featured in a brand-new Princess and the Frog special. This project is in early development, with Joyce Sherri (who was originally hired as a writer/director for the now-scrapped Tiana series) leading the charge with Stephen Anderson.

As a result of Disney’s strategic move away from long-form content, the company will conduct a round of layoffs at its Vancouver-based offshoot of Walt Disney Animation Studios. The facility opened in 2022 and was set up primarily for the production of long-form Disney+ projects. The exact number of expected job cuts is not yet known.

Subtle hints of this shift in strategy have been evident at the Mouse House for some time. In addition to a notable lack of progress/updates on Tiana, Moana 2 started out as a streaming series concept but pivoted to become a theatrical feature—a decision that certainly paid off, given that it has earned more than US$1 billion at the global box office.

Last fall, Walt Disney Animation Studios appointed CCO Jared Bush to oversee a slate that appears to be aligning with Pixar’s tried-and-true sequel strategy that helped spawn last year’s top-grossing film, Inside Out 2. Coming up this year from the studio is Zootopia 2, which will premiere on November 26, followed by an as-yet-unannounced film in November 2026 and a Frozen threequel in November 2027.