Beast (Dan Stevens)

The Beast appears in the 2017 live-action remake, played by Dan Stevens. In this version, Beast is wittier and has a very dry, English sense of humor. Also, unlike his animated counterpart, who was turned into a beast by the Enchantress for his selfish, unkind and spoiled nature, the prince was turned into a beast by the Enchantress for his arrogance, as well as making an explicit reference to his old fixation on beauty above all else. The storyline also expands on his backstory; a flashback confirmed that his kind-hearted mother died when he was a child, leaving his crueler father to raise him, giving him his cruel behavior as a result. However, he still hints at a strong interest in literature when he shows Belle his library, and is later found reading the book King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. The film also features an original song for the Beast, "Evermore", sung after Belle departs to save her father, where he mourns his belief that he will never find love while aware that Belle's memory will be with him forever. His appearance here, as opposed to combining features of various animals, is instead more explicitly an anthropomorphic lion, but with a pair of large, antelope-like horns.