'Beauty and the Beast': Josh Gad's LeFou announced as gay

March 1 (UPI) -- Director of Disney's upcoming live-action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast Bill Condon has announced that star Josh Gad's character LeFou will be portrayed as gay.

"LeFou is somebody who on one day wants to be Gaston and on another day wants to kiss Gaston (Luke Evans)," Condon said of LeFou in the April issue of Attitude that features stars Emma Watson (Belle) and Dan Stevens (Beast) on the cover.

"He's confused about what he wants. It's somebody who's just realizing that he has these feelings," the filmmaker continued."And Josh makes something really subtle and delicious out of it. And that's what has its payoff at the end, which I don't want to give away. But it is a nice, exclusively gay moment in a Disney movie."

Gad's LeFou will mark the first time an openly LGBTQ character will appear onscreen in a Disney film.When asked on Twitter regarding LeFou, Gad wrote, "Beyond proud of this."

Watson and Stevens, when asked about the film, shared how they developed their characters who are seen as outsiders.

"I think it was really important for Dan and I to develop and understand why each of our characters feel as if they don't fit in," Watson said. "I certainly felt watching the original that I wanted to know more about why Belle feels that she's different and why she wants to be different and why she's naturally different."

Beauty and the Beast which also stars Ewan McGregor as Lumiere, Ian McKellen as Cogsworth and Nathan Mack as Chip, arrives in theaters March 17.