Princess Tiana Is Getting Her Own Series on Disney+

Published on January 31, 2021

During Disney Investor Day last December, Walt Disney Animation Studios revealed some exciting news about Princess Tiana. The heroine from The Princess and the Frog will soon have her own series on Disney+!

What We Know

The series, solely titled Tiana, returns us to world of Princess Tiana, following her wedding with Prince Naveen. If you have no idea about what I’m talking about and you haven’t seen The Princess and the Frog, here’s a quick synopsis:

Tiana works day in and day out to work towards her goal of owning the finest restaurant in New Orleans, a dream she held with her father. Prince Naveen of Maldonia travels to New Orleans in search of a better financial situation after his parents cut him off; he decides to marry a rich, Southern belle, thinking that will do the trick. He then meets Dr. Facilier, a witch doctor who says that he can make his dreams come true, but tricks Naveen by turning him into a frog.

The two meet, with Naveen mistaking Tiana for a princess, kissing her, and her turning into a frog as well. Throughout the film, they travel through the New Orleans bayou in search of a voodoo priestess to help them and, eventually, fall in love.

Are you still with me? Good, let’s continue.

As stated above, the series takes place after the wedding of Tiana and Naveen. At the end of the film, the two of them were building Tiana’s new restaurant, showing the audience that her dream came true. However, the new show takes us away from New Orleans and to the kingdom of Maldonia, where Tiana will finally step into her new role as princess.

Just like the film, Tiana will be a musical-comedy; some of my favorite Disney songs come from The Princess and the Frog, so I’m excited to see what the new series brings.

A Number of Firsts

Tiana was a first for Disney. She was the very first Black princess in the Disney Princess franchise, which is huge. Representation in animation is important, especially for children as the grow older; they’ll sometimes look for characters who look like them to have that feeling of inclusion, I know that’s what I did.

However, when the film premiered in 2009, Disney received criticism since Tiana spent the majority of her screen time as a frog but from the synopsis of the new series, Tiana will most definitely stay human so that’s a positive thing to look forward to.

Anika Noni Rose, Tiana’s voice actor in the film, spoke with People last July and reflected on time as the princess. She said that it is an “amazing legacy” to have been the first to voice a Black princess for Disney and that it helped open the minds of people to other possibilities because of how much love Tiana received.

In addition to being the first Black Disney princess, Tiana will also be first Disney princess to get her own television series.

Tiana will hit the small screen on Disney+ in 2023.

Lexi Jones is an award-winning journalist and Staff Writer at Grit Daily. Based in Las Vegas, she covers startup brands in entertainment, internet and LGBTQ+ startup news. She is also an editor of Grit Daily's "Top 100" entrepreneur lists.

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