First Look at Kathryn Hahn’s Mother Gothel Has Fans More Convinced than Ever About Disney’s Live-Action ‘Tangled’

Disney’s live-action remake machine has had a mixed track record when it comes to fan reception, with each new announcement typically triggering some mix of excitement and skepticism. ‘Tangled‘ seemed poised to follow that same pattern, until one specific casting choice changed the conversation entirely.

That choice was Kathryn Hahn stepping into the role of Mother Gothel, and now that production has officially begun in Spain, the first glimpses of her in character are starting to surface online. Early set photos show Hahn on location with the film’s signature dark, curly wig, giving fans their clearest indication yet of how her take on the iconic villain will look on screen.

The images arrive after months of buildup around Hahn’s casting, which Disney confirmed back in March through a playful Instagram video. In the clip, Hahn introduced her “outfit of the day” before revealing a T-shirt covered in images of the animated Gothel, voiced originally by Donna Murphy in the 2010 film. Walt Disney Studios shared the same video, captioning it, in a post reported by the LA Times, “You want her to be the bad guy? FINE. Kathryn Hahn is Mother Gothel in Disney’s live-action Tangled.”

Hahn’s path to the role wasn’t entirely straightforward. Development on the ‘Tangled’ remake had been shelved for a period before reentering active development in October, with Scarlett Johansson originally circling the Mother Gothel role before scheduling conflicts with ‘Batman II’ and an Exorcist reboot forced her to step away. Deadline first reported that Hahn was in talks for the part back in January, following months of fans openly campaigning for her casting across social media.

Hahn herself had been fielding questions about the rumors at red carpets and press events in the months leading up to her official casting, often sidestepping the topic by simply expressing her general love of playing “gnarly witches.”

That campaign was fueled almost entirely by Hahn’s history playing morally complicated, scene-stealing characters, particularly her Emmy-nominated turn as Agatha Harkness across ‘WandaVision’ and its spinoff, ‘Agatha All Along.’ Fans have consistently pointed to that specific brand of theatrical menace as exactly what Mother Gothel’s manipulative, musical-number-driven villainy calls for, with one fan reaction online going so far as to declare that her Marvel work had essentially served as an audition for the role.

Hahn joins a cast that also includes Teagan Croft as Rapunzel and Milo Manheim as Flynn Ryder, both relative newcomers stepping into roles from the 2010 animated original. Michael Gracey, the director behind ‘The Greatest Showman’ and the Robbie Williams biopic ‘Better Man,’ is helming the live-action adaptation, with Jennifer Kaytin Robinson writing the screenplay.

Additional set photos have also surfaced showing Rapunzel’s tower under construction, further confirming that production is well underway following filming’s start in Spain this month. No official release date has been confirmed for the project, though industry chatter points toward a possible 2027 debut given the current stage of production.

For a character built around themes of control, vanity, and manipulation disguised as maternal love, Hahn’s casting has landed with fans as close to consensus praise as Disney’s live-action slate has managed in recent memory. Between her proven range and the character’s demand for someone who can be simultaneously charming and unsettling, the early reaction suggests Disney may have found its Mother Gothel long before a single frame of footage was ever seen.

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