Disney’s Live-Action Tangled Opens 31 March 2028 — Kathryn Hahn Is Mother Gothel, and One Cast Member’s Role Still Has No Name Attached

Disney has given its live-action Tangled a date — 31 March 2028 — and shown the first footage from it at the D23 showcase.

The cast is now largely public, and the reveal itself was built around one performer. But the most interesting line in the announcement is a blank space, and it is worth getting to.

Who is playing whom

Actor	Role
Teagan Croft	Rapunzel
Milo Manheim	Flynn Rider
Kathryn Hahn	Mother Gothel
Patrick and Hugo McPherson	The Stabbington brothers
Diego Luna	Not announced

Reporting from the event names Michael Gracey as director.

The unnamed role is the only real unknown

This is a remake of a film released in 2010, itself based on a story several centuries old. Almost nobody buying a ticket will be uncertain about how it ends. That is the peculiar position every one of these remakes occupies: the plot cannot be the surprise.

So an actor of Diego Luna’s profile being announced without a character is genuinely unusual. Studios do not usually withhold a name when the name is a selling point. Two readings fit:

• The character does not exist in the 2010 film, and naming him would give away the one thing in the story that is not already known.
• The role is a known character being handled in a way Disney would rather show than describe.

Both are guesses. What is verifiable is only that the role has not been announced — so treat any confident claim about who he is playing as invention until Disney confirms it.

What was actually shown

The footage opened by following Rapunzel’s hair across stone steps before revealing Croft in the character’s purple costume. The presentation used the lanterns — the image the animated film is best remembered for — filling the Honda Center.

Then Kathryn Hahn stepped out in character as Mother Gothel and said one word: Rapunzel. It was, by every account of the room, the moment of the segment.

The casting choice that says the most

The Stabbington brothers being played by actual twins is a small detail with a practical meaning. In the animated film they are a visual gag as much as a threat. Casting real twins rather than duplicating one actor digitally suggests the production is favouring things done in front of the camera.

That fits a director known for large practical musical set pieces, and it fits a March release — a slot Disney uses for films it expects families to return to, rather than a summer opening weekend.

What is still to come

• Diego Luna’s character.
• A public trailer. With a March 2028 release, marketing has well over a year to run.
• The songs. Nothing has been said about which of the original numbers return or whether new ones are being written.

The release date of 31 March 2028, the D23 first-look presentation on 14 August 2026, and the casting of Teagan Croft as Rapunzel, Milo Manheim as Flynn Rider, Kathryn Hahn as Mother Gothel, and Patrick and Hugo McPherson as the Stabbington brothers, along with Diego Luna’s inclusion in the cast without an announced character and Michael Gracey’s attachment as director, were reported by Deadline, Variety, LaughingPlace and other outlets covering the event. Descriptions of the footage come from journalists and attendees present, as the material was not released publicly. The two possible explanations offered here for the unannounced role are the author’s inference and are not sourced to Disney. Release dates and casting are subject to change.

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