Beauty and the Beast prequel to see Gaston and Lefou run a bar in wartime Morocco

A planned Beauty and the Beast prequel will see the narcissistic Gaston run a bar in wartime Morocco with his faithful sidekick Lefou.

The bar will seemingly be a jolly place, with a nice singalong every night about how big Gaston’s muscles are, but under the surface will be a hotbed of espionage and smuggling.

“It seemed a shame to only see Gaston and Lefou in this medieval fairytale setting,” explained producer Stewart James.

“So, I got to thinking about what they did before they arrived in a village – perhaps they were rock stars in an eighties hair-metal band, or footballers struggling in a lower league French club, they might even have been serial killers.”

Ultimately, James decided to ask some young fans what they thought.

“My nephews! They were unanimous. Gaston and Lefou would run a seedy bar in wartime Morocco full of spies, soldiers, drunks and criminals.

“There’s the wisdom of children for you. It’s a terrific idea as, I think, everyone is going to find out.”

The prequel will take the form of a miniseries with several standalone episodes before an end-of-season arc in which a young woman called Belle and a really hairy guy find themselves trapped in Morocco with no way to escape to a free country.

Gaston helps them out and smuggles them off to a medieval fairy-tale village.

However, he becomes so infatuated with the beautiful Belle that he decides to follow her.

“A tale as old as time,” chuckled James.

Should the Beauty and the Beast prequel prove a success then an Aladdin prequel is in the works that will see a killer-robot from the future travel back to assassinate Princess Jasmine.