Downton Abbey star Dan Stevens will star as the cursed prince in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, along with Emma Watson as Belle.

Update: Watson and Stevens confirmed the news with these three tweets:

Actor Luke Evans signed on earlier today to portray Gaston in Disney’s live-action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast, with Harry Potter star Emma Watson signing on to play Belle in January.

Stevens is best known for playing Matthew Crawley on the PBS show Downton Abbey, but he left the show back in 2012. He starred in Bill Condon’s The Fifth Estate this past year.

Condon is directing Disney’s Beauty and the Beast adaptation, with the script being written by Stephen Chbosky, who directed Emma Watson in The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

Dan Stevens has also had roles in A Walk Among the Tombstones with star Liam Neeson, and played Sir Lancelot in Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, with Ben Stiller and the late Robin Williams.

Stevens is a English actor, born in Surrey, who was trained in acting at the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain, and later studied English Literature at Cambridge. While at Cambridge he was in multiple student productions, including Macbeth. Actress Rebecca Hall was in the same production as Stevens, co-starring as Lady Macbeth.

Disney’s Beauty and the Beast continues in a pattern of live-action adaptations the studio has been developing in recent years. Disney have enjoyed success with Alice in Wonderland, Maleficent, and this spring’s Cinderella, which were all only known previously for their animated films.

Are you happy with ‘Downton Abbey’ star Dan Stevens as the Beast?