A familiar fairy tale is about to change forever; not through romance, but through rebellion, redemption, and a fresh dose of animated chaos.
Netflix has officially unveiled its upcoming animated fantasy, Steps, a radical reimagining of the Cinderella legend that shifts the spotlight away from the glass slipper and directly onto the misunderstood women who were once labeled villains.
After years of silence following its first announcement, the project has been revived with new creative leadership, and a release window set for 2026.
A New Voice For A Classic Villain-Origin Story
The film will be led by Ali Wong and Stephanie Hsu, voicing two stepsisters whose lives spin out of control when a magical disaster turns a royal celebration into a kingdom-wide crisis.
Behind the camera are John Ripa and first time feature director Alyce Tzue, bringing a bold, modern tone to the famously traditional fairy tale structure.
Lilith, voiced by Wong, is wrongly accused of sabotaging the Royal Ball using a stolen magic wand; in the chaos, her sister Margot is transformed into a frog, and the kingdom falls under the control of a shallow, power-hungry socialite. In a surprising shift of alliances, Lilith must join forces with Cinderella and an unexpected troll companion to restore the balance and rewrite the ending.
Why Netflix Is Betting Big On This Fairy Tale Flip
The project is produced by Amy Poehler, Jane Hartwell, and Kim Lessing, signaling Netflix’s confidence in the seriousness, and commercial potential, of this animated feature.
The streamer has already found major success in animation through projects like KPop Demon Hunters and In Your Dreams, helping it establish a reputation for genre-bending, original animated storytelling.
Stephanie Hsu’s rising profile, paired with Ali Wong’s comic timing and dramatic credibility, gives the movie both star power and emotional range; a balance that could transform Steps into one of Netflix’s most talked about releases of 2026.
A Familiar Story, Finally Told From The Other Side
Revisionist fairy tales are not new; but Cinderella has rarely been given a version that interrogates the very people once written off as monsters.
The last high-profile reinvention came with Cinderella in 2015, but Steps promises something darker, funnier, and far more emotionally self-aware.
If successful, Steps will not just retell a story; it will rewrite the moral center of one of the world’s most famous fairy tales, and prove that every so-called villain deserves a chance at a new ending.
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