Russo Brothers TikTok-Inspired ‘Hercules’ Is Sending Twitter Into a Tailspin: “What Does It Mean?”

The upcoming live-action Hercules is being propelled from the ’90s right into 2022. Filmmakers Joe Russo and Anthony Russo, who are turning the Disney classic into a modern film, told Variety their movie will pull inspiration from TikTok, of all places.

The short-form video app, which emerged as a destination for dance videos from influencers like Charli D’Amelio and has warped into one of the biggest social platforms of today, will play a significant role in Hercules, according to a Variety cover story on the Russo Brothers.

Joe told Variety their Hercules, which will be directed by Guy Ritchie, will be “a little bit more experimental in tone, a little bit more experimental in execution,” than previous live-action Disney films.

While Hercules will get a shake-up from the Russo Brothers, they’re still keeping the musical element from the 1997 animated film, but infusing it with that TikTok magic.

As Joe explained, “There are questions about how you translate it as a musical. Audiences today have been trained by TikTok, right? What is their expectation of what that musical looks like and feels like? That can be a lot of fun and help us push the boundaries a little bit on how you execute a modern musical.”

Well, he may think it’s fun, but Twitter doesn’t exactly agree. As Joe’s quotes began making the rounds online, commenters couldn’t hold back.

“Seeing one of the Russo brothers say that Tiktok may be an inspiration for the Hercules remake is one of the most chilling things I’ve ever heard,” one wrote.

Another added, “finally, disney knows what we want. watching hercules in 30-second intervals with minecraft parkour underneath.”

The Russo Brothers’ Hercules was announced in June, about 25 years after the animated version was released by Disney in 1997. The fantasy musical starred Tate Donovan as Hercules, Danny DeVito as Philoctetes, James Woods as Hades and Susan Egan as Megara.

The movie inspired a VOD sequel titled Hercules: Zero to Hero and show titled Hercules: The Animated Series. Obviously, the TikTok version is a first, not just in the Hercules sphere, but in the entire movie-musical feature film genre. Will it include dance routines? Will it be 15 seconds long? Will Addison Rae appear?

We’ve got plenty of burning questions, but only time will tell!