Netflix 'Steps' Directors Welcome Direct-to-Streaming
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- John Ripa welcomed Netflix's decision to release 'Steps' straight to streaming, telling an Annecy work-in-progress session that after six years of production, 'you want it to be seen by as many as possible'
- 'Steps' stars Amanda Seyfried, Bette Midler, Ali Wong, Stephanie Hsu, and Nikki Glaser in a retelling that reimagines the stepsisters in a new light rather than casting them as villains
- Co-director Alyce Tzue said the film 'flips the script' on Cinderella because 'everyone deserves their happily ever after,' citing her experience as 'the only Asian girl in class' as personal motivation behind the eight-year project
- The film began in development with Amy Poehler's Paper Kite and was greenlit by Netflix in 2020, with Ripa noting early Cinderella versions date to 7 BC and the stepsisters first appearing in an old Italian retelling
- The team tackled the challenge of animating a majority-female cast, with Tzue referencing a 2015 Tumblr post criticizing how female animated characters are designed and saying the cast 'does justice to that range'
- Netflix takes a case-by-case approach to theatrical runs for animated films, a debate that resurfaced during its near-acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery before Paramount's superior bid halted the deal
Why it matters: Skipping theatrical runs entirely sacrifices awards eligibility — a stated factor in Netflix's case-by-case decisions — in exchange for global simultaneous reach on a project that took eight years to make. The directors' embrace of streaming-first distribution signals that for this Cinderella retelling, audience scale is being prioritized over the prestige pathway that animated films like Netflix's own Oscar contenders have historically pursued.
