Disney has finally pulled back the curtain on its live-action version of Tangled.

And before Rapunzel says a word, the movie is making sure audiences recognize exactly who they are looking at.

At Disney’s D23 fan event in Anaheim, the studio unveiled the first official footage from the upcoming remake, revealing Australian actress Teagan Croft in costume as Rapunzel and offering the first glimpse of Kathryn Hahn’s transformation into Mother Gothel.

There was also another major piece of news.

The movie now has a theatrical release date: March 31, 2028.

For fans who have spent years wondering how Disney would translate the colorful 2010 animated film into live action, the first footage answered at least one major question.

Rapunzel’s hair is going nowhere.

The First Shot Put the Hair Front and Center

According to Entertainment Weekly’s description of the D23 footage, Disney did not immediately begin with a close-up of Croft’s face.

Instead, the presentation emphasized the feature that has defined Rapunzel for generations.

Her enormous blonde hair was shown stretching across the ground before the camera moved upward to reveal Croft dressed as the princess.

It was a deliberate introduction.

In the 2010 animated movie, Rapunzel’s magical golden hair is more than a visual gimmick. It is central to the entire story, from Mother Gothel’s reasons for keeping her locked inside the tower to Rapunzel’s eventual journey into the outside world.

Disney’s official description of the animated film famously gives Rapunzel approximately 70 feet of magical hair.

The live-action version clearly has no intention of minimizing that part of the character.

Croft’s costume also appears designed to preserve the instantly recognizable Rapunzel silhouette rather than radically reinventing it for live action.

For a remake of a movie that remains heavily associated with its original visual design, that familiarity may be important.

But Rapunzel was only half of Disney’s reveal.

Then Mother Gothel Stepped Out of the Darkness

The footage reportedly shifted into a much darker image for Kathryn Hahn’s Mother Gothel.

Entertainment Weekly described a long-nailed hand emerging from behind a dark doorway before Hahn stepped forward in full costume.

Hahn then appeared in person at D23 to introduce the project and immediately leaned into Gothel’s twisted sense of self-importance.

She joked about the character being wonderful and generous while acknowledging her extreme overprotectiveness.

More importantly, Hahn explained what attracts her to the villain.

She sees Gothel as the kind of antagonist who believes she is actually the hero of the story.

That is a useful clue about how Hahn may approach the role.

Mother Gothel is not simply an obvious fairy-tale monster. In the original Tangled, she controls Rapunzel through affection, guilt, fear and manipulation while presenting much of that behavior as parental concern.

Donna Murphy voiced the character in the animated movie, creating a villain who could shift between theatrical warmth and menace almost instantly.

Hahn now has the challenge of translating that personality into live action without simply imitating Murphy’s performance.

Rapunzel and Flynn Were Missing From D23 for a Good Reason

Croft herself was not in Anaheim for the presentation.

Neither was Milo Manheim, who is playing Flynn Rider.

Instead, they sent a video message from Spain, where production is currently underway.

Croft told fans they were disappointed to miss D23 but were busy filming, while Manheim teased the real locations being used throughout Spain. Disney confirmed that the film is currently shooting there.

The choice of locations could become one of the biggest differences between the animated and live-action versions.

The original movie creates an exaggerated fairy-tale kingdom filled with forests, cliffs, castles and the famous lantern sequence.

Now director Michael Gracey has to make that world feel tangible.

Gracey is an especially interesting choice for Tangled because his previous directing credits include The Greatest Showman, a movie built heavily around musical spectacle.

Disney has confirmed that Gracey is directing, with Kristin Burr producing. Variety reports that Jennifer Kaytin Robinson and Michael Montemayor worked on the screenplay.

Milo Manheim Had Almost No Time to Process Becoming Flynn Rider

Manheim’s involvement also came together in a surprisingly dramatic way.

The actor, known to Disney audiences from the Zombies franchise, has said that contrary to what fans may have assumed, he was not secretly sitting on the casting news for months.

He learned he had officially landed Flynn Rider only about 10 minutes before the announcement became public.

Manheim has also revealed that preparing for the movie has involved considerably more than growing the right hairstyle and practicing Flynn’s famous smirk.

He has trained in horseback riding and even worked on holding his breath for extended periods for sequences in the movie.

That suggests the live-action Tangled may lean heavily into the physical adventure of Rapunzel and Flynn’s escape across the kingdom.

Croft, meanwhile, takes over the role originally voiced by Mandy Moore.

The Australian actress previously starred as Rachel Roth/Raven in Titans and played real-life sailor Jessica Watson in True Spirit. Her casting as Rapunzel was announced in January alongside Manheim.

An Outlander Favorite Is Joining Rapunzel’s Family

D23 also brought a significant new casting announcement.

Caitríona Balfe, best known for playing Claire Fraser on Outlander, has joined Tangled as Queen Arianna, Rapunzel’s mother.

Elliot Cowan will play King Frederic.

Patrick and Hugo McPherson have been cast as the Stabbington twins, while Diego Luna is playing a new character named Hawthorne.

Luna’s involvement may be particularly interesting because Hawthorne does not appear to be a simple recreation of one of the major characters from the animated film.

That gives the remake at least some room to expand the original story rather than reproducing it scene for scene.

Disney is nevertheless working with one of its most beloved modern animated properties.

That creates a difficult balance.

Fans will expect the tower.

They will expect Flynn Rider.

They will expect Mother Gothel.

And there are certain images — especially Rapunzel’s hair and the floating lanterns — that are almost impossible to separate from Tangled.

The Original Movie Left Disney a Very High Bar

The animated Tangled opened on Nov. 24, 2010, with Mandy Moore as Rapunzel and Zachary Levi as Flynn Rider.

It became one of Disney Animation’s defining films of the period and eventually expanded beyond the original feature.

The story continued through the short Tangled Ever After and the television project that became Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure. Disney has also brought the property into its theme parks, including Rapunzel’s Lantern Festival at Tokyo DisneySea.

Variety reports that the original film earned nearly $600 million worldwide, while “I See the Light” received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song.

That history means the live-action movie arrives with built-in affection — and built-in scrutiny.

Disney has remade many of its animated classics, but Tangled is young enough that a large part of its original audience vividly remembers seeing it for the first time.

For them, Rapunzel does not feel like an old Disney character being rediscovered.

She still feels contemporary.

March 2028 Will Show Whether the Magic Translates

There is still a long way to go before audiences can judge the finished movie.

Filming is underway, and Disney has so far shown only an early taste of the new Rapunzel, Flynn Rider and Mother Gothel.

But the first footage makes the studio’s strategy clear.

The filmmakers are not running away from the images people remember.

Rapunzel still has the seemingly endless blonde hair.

Flynn still has his adventurous leading-man identity.

Mother Gothel is still being presented as an extravagant, unsettling presence.

The bigger question is what happens when those familiar pieces begin moving through real environments with real actors.

Fans will get their answer when Disney’s live-action Tangled reaches theaters on March 31, 2028.

Until then, Disney has revealed just enough to make one thing clear:

After years of speculation about what a real-life Rapunzel might look like, her hair has finally left the tower.