Disney hired a spicy romantasy author for Beauty and the Beast WEBTOON
Disney announced “Cursed Love,” a romantasy line launching on Webtoon with a Belle and Beast story written by Emily McIntire. She’s a bestselling dark romance author whose books all point readers to a content warnings page. Variety’s take: Disney is putting the adult in Disney Adult.
Disney announced a romantasy line at D23, and the author it hired to launch it is the interesting part.
Disney Cursed Love debuts with The Curse of a Forsaken Heart, a Belle and Beast story arriving first on Webtoon before print editions in 2027. It’s written by Emily McIntire and illustrated by Samairu.
Disney Publishing’s own description promises a seductive, action-packed romantasy tangled in dark magic and terrible curses.
Who Emily McIntire is
She’s a number one New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller, and a considerable name on BookTok.
Her signature work is the Never After series, which she describes not as retellings but as fractured fairy tale reimaginings, giving classic villains their happy endings. The books draw on Peter Pan, The Wizard of Oz, Aladdin, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and The Little Mermaid.
They are also firmly adult. Each one carries a note advising reader discretion and directing readers to a content warnings page on McIntire’s website. The series is flagged for explicit sexual content, graphic violence, and depictions of abuse.
Maintaining that page isn’t unusual. Content warnings are a reader-service convention in dark romance, and McIntire keeps a detailed list per book.
The part that’s genuinely funny
McIntire built a career writing unlicensed adult versions of stories Disney owns the most famous adaptations of.
The Never After books go out of their way to establish distance. Not retellings. Not fantasy. Fractured reimaginings set in a contemporary world. That framing is doing legal work as much as creative work.
Disney has now hired her to write an official one.
What Disney is actually buying
The hire is a signal about audience, and the audience is enormous.
Romantasy is one of the biggest categories in publishing right now, driven heavily by BookTok and skewing to adult women, which is a market Disney’s princess catalogue has historically reached only through nostalgia. Hiring a top name from that world is a straightforward way in.
It also fits a bigger deal. Disney and Webtoon announced a partnership last year to bring roughly 100 titles to the platform across Disney, Marvel, 20th Century, and Star Wars, mixing reformatted back catalogue with new originals. Cursed Love is one of the originals.
How spicy is it going to be
This is where expectations need managing, and one detail already suggests the answer.
The Beast appears in human form. Whatever this is, it isn’t a monster romance, and Book Riot noted the disappointment among readers who’d hoped otherwise.
More to the point, Disney is publishing this under its own name. A company that carefully manages what its princesses can be shown doing is not going to put explicit content out with the corporate logo on it. McIntire’s presence signals tone, adult framing, higher heat than a Disney tie-in would normally carry. It does not signal that her usual content warnings are coming with her.
The synopsis reads as fairly standard fantasy adventure. Belle and the Beast get pulled through an enchanted stained-glass window into a cursed kingdom, where a princess named Emberlynne refused a sorcerer’s proposal and doomed the realm to live without love. They have to help her find love to break it.
That’s a fairy tale plot. What McIntire brings is the register it gets told in, and how far Disney lets that register go is the only real question here. The answer arrives on Webtoon before it hits print in 2027.
Article compiled and edited by Derek Gibbs (entertainment editor) and the Clownfish TV newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
Variety (August 2026), verified for the Disney Cursed Love announcement at D23, The Curse of a Forsaken Heart as the first title, Emily McIntire and Samairu as the creative team, the Webtoon-first release with print following in 2027, the full synopsis, and the new Disney digital comics platform positioned as an expansion to Marvel Unlimited
Book Riot (August 2026), verified for Disney Publishing’s “seductive, action-packed romantasy” language, the confirmation that the Beast appears in human form, and the reader reaction from those expecting otherwise
Anime News Network (August 17, 2026), verified for the August 14 D23 announcement date, McIntire’s New York Times bestseller status, and the initiative’s framing as inspired by Disney’s classic love stories
Goodreads, Amazon and Maryse’s Book Blog (2021-2026), verified for the Never After series’ dark romance classification, the reader-discretion notices directing to McIntire’s content warnings page, her number one New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller status, and the series’ fractured-fairy-tale framing
BookScouter and TV Tropes (2025), verified for the series-wide content warnings including explicit sexual content, graphic violence and abuse, McIntire’s per-book warning page, and the specific fairy tales the series draws on
Variety (August 2025), verified for the earlier Disney and Webtoon partnership covering roughly 100 titles across Disney, Marvel, 20th Century Studios and Star Wars