Hercules Live-Action: Megara Voice Actress Pitches Zendaya

The Pitch of the Weekend

Disney’s D23 weekend delivered a mountain of casting news, but the pitch that got the internet talking didn’t come from a Marvel panel or a Pixar sizzle reel. It came from Susan Egan — the voice of Megara in the 1997 animated classic Hercules — who walked up to a red carpet microphone on Sunday and made her own casting call for the long-gestating live-action remake: Zendaya as Meg, and Tom Holland as the Greek demigod himself.

“I mean, I’ve been subtly saying Zendaya, but now I’m just gonna say it,” Egan told Deadline at D23. “And probably, Tom and Zendaya, who I have never met, are filing for the restraining order right now. But honestly, I don’t even care. I feel like the world needs it.”

Why Egan’s Words Carry Weight

Egan isn’t just any fan with a dream cast. She’s one of the most important voices in Disney musical history: she originated the role of Belle in Beauty and the Beast on Broadway in 1994 — earning both Tony and Drama Desk nominations — before lending her voice to Megara, the sharpest-tongued leading lady in the studio’s animated canon. When she talks about who should inherit Meg, she knows exactly what the character needs.

“Not even because they are the ‘it’ couple right now, it’s not even that,” she said. “I have watched her beautiful career from when she was a teenager, and she’s just grounded. She is a strong woman, obviously, statuesque and amazing, with an incredible voice and a little edge, don’t you think?”

That combination — incredible voice, a little edge — is the whole ballgame for Megara. The character’s signature song “I Won’t Say (I’m in Love)” requires a performer who can sell defiance and vulnerability in the same breath, and Zendaya has spent a decade proving she can do exactly that, from her music career to her Emmy-winning work on Euphoria and her blockbuster turns in Dune and the Spider-Man films.

Two Stars, Nearly $6 Billion at the Box Office

The business case is almost as loud as the fan case. Zendaya and Holland have now starred opposite each other in four Spider-Man movies — Homecoming, Far From Home, No Way Home and this summer’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day — and Deadline estimates the pair has generated nearly $6 billion for Disney across the franchise. Brand New Day itself just crossed $2 billion worldwide, the second-fastest film in history to reach the milestone, with $785 million in North America and $1.23 billion internationally. The couple also co-starred in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, which has sailed past $1.29 billion globally.

Put simply: if Disney wants two actors who guarantee audiences show up, there are no two better candidates alive. Holland brings the acrobatics and puppy-dog charm that a live-action Hercules would need — the same physical charisma he’s been honing as Spider-Man for a decade — and his chemistry with Zendaya is the most bankable on-screen pairing in Hollywood right now. Our The Odyssey coverage has tracked how that star power carried the summer box office.

The Remake’s Long, Slow Road

The live-action Hercules has been stuck in development limbo for years. Disney first put the project in motion in 2020 with the Russo brothers producing and Shang-Chi scribe Dave Callaham attached to write, and Guy Ritchie — fresh off turning Aladdin into a $1 billion hit — was tapped to direct in 2022. Since then, silence. The project wasn’t part of the dated 2028 slate Disney revealed at D23, which includes live-action Tangled (March 31, 2028), Lilo & Stitch 2 (May 28, 2028) and a late-2028 Ghost Rider, meaning a Hercules movie starring the internet’s favorite couple remains a wish — not a promise.

That silence fits a pattern. Disney has learned the hard way that cloning its animated classics frame-for-frame doesn’t always work — Moana‘s live-action remake stumbled to under $300 million globally this summer — and the studio has said it wants to find “unique ways” into beloved vault titles instead, from a Stepsisters spinoff of Cinderella to Gaston in the Beauty and the Beast universe. A straight remake of Hercules would need to clear that higher bar.

What a Zendaya and Holland Version Could Look Like

If the studio ever does pull the trigger, Egan’s instincts align with what made the 1997 film work. The original was a musical comedy with Broadway-grade songs — “Go the Distance,” “Zero to Hero” and that Meg anthem — and its wit came from Megara, who is arguably the funniest character Disney ever animated. Zendaya’s deadpan delivery and lived-in confidence would fit that energy perfectly. Holland, meanwhile, is one of the few young actors who can do earnest hero-work without turning it into a parody — a skill he’s demonstrated in everything from The Crowded Room to his Spider-Man trilogy.

And there’s precedent for Egan-level enthusiasm paying off. The live-action Beauty and the Beast (2017) made $1.26 billion by trusting its Broadway DNA — the same DNA Egan helped create when she originated Belle on stage — and that movie’s spirit is the direct descendant of the show she helped invent. A Hercules with the same musical muscle, and the biggest co-starring couple in the business, would be the safest bet Disney could make.

Of course, the loudest voice in the room may be the one that has made Disney hesitate for years: the audience. Fan casting is always a crowd-pleaser, but the reaction to Egan’s pitch online was instantly divided. For every commenter who loved the idea of Zendaya matching Meg’s sarcasm beat for beat, there was another groaning at the thought of another classic cartoon turned into a live-action blockbuster. Disney has watched Moana‘s remake underperform, concluded that full-on adaptations like Dumbo, Pinocchio and Snow White carried themes that aged poorly, and made Tangled its next live-action bet for 2028 — the studio is clearly more cautious about the format than it was a decade ago, when Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin were printing money on the strength of their musicals alone.

The Real Question: Does Disney Listen?

Disney has spent the past two years rediscovering that star power sells. Brand New Day and The Odyssey are the two biggest films of the summer in no small part because of the wattage in front of the camera. Egan’s pitch is pure fan casting — she admitted she’s “subtly” wanted Zendaya for years — but fan casting has a way of becoming reality when the numbers line up this cleanly.

“I feel like the world needs it,” she said. Given the global appetite for the couple on screen, and the endless hunger for Disney’s musical classics in live action, she might be right. Whether it’s Zendaya and Holland or somebody else entirely, a live-action Hercules feels less like a question of if and more like a question of when — and when it happens, Megara’s original voice will have called the casting from a D23 red carpet first.

Sources

Via Deadline (D23 interview and box office data) and Deadline box office.