Kristen Wiig & Annie Mumolo Reimagine Cinderella’s Stepsisters for Disney

Birthed from the minds of Bridesmaids’ Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, Barb & Star Go To Vista Del Mar has been one of the lockdown era’s few truly great, unapologetically zany comedies. Hot off its success, the writing pair are now setting their sights on another dowdy pair: the evil stepsisters from Disney’s Cinderella.

According to Deadline, Wiig and Mumolo inked a deal to write a script featuring the frumpy duo (female comedy studio Gloria Sanchez Productions will be co-producing, in an interesting development). In classic tellings of the Cinderella story, the stepsisters, known as Anastasia and Drizella in the Disney canon, are cast as pure evil. But in modern retellings, they’ve often been the comic relief. They may be the evil mother’s favorites, but they’re still being raised by an evil mother. We guess the stories never really go too deeply into any origin tales, but they did lose their father at some point, too.

The idea is the film will reimagine the classic story, but from their point of view as they “struggle to uphold their family’s legacy.” It will, apparently, not be directly related to Disney’s 2015 live-action Cinderella.

However, Deadline reports that it’s not clear if Wiig and Mumolo will actually star in the film. As of right now, the central duo will be played by younger actresses—but there is always the role of their mother.

Disney’s live-action reimagining of its animated cannon has been successful at the box office, but far from critically successful. Audiences may go see them, but none of them have really reached the same cultural adoration of their animated predecessors.

Interestingly, as Disney tries to find a way to stretch that IP beyond simple remakes, they’ve often decided to focus on female villains instead, including the Angelina Jolie-starring Maleficent and the upcoming Emma Stone-led Cruella. Going the straight-comedic route adds another intriguing new wrinkle to the House of Mouse’s fairytale live-action efforts as well. Anything is worth a try.

By the way, this isn’t the only Cinderella revisit in the works, either. A non-Disney Camila Cabello-starring version is still planned.