Gaston is a character featured in the live-action 2017 remake, Beauty and the Beast and is portrayed by Luke Evans. Gaston was a former army captain prior to his career as a hunter.
History[]
Just like his animated counterpart, Gaston is well-liked and respected in the village for his previous war heroics against the Portuguese and aims to have Belle as his wife. At first, he attempts to woo her to get her approval for marriage many times, but she respectfully turns him down due to his rude behavior. It is for this reason Gaston wants to marry Belle, for he's used to girls swooning over him. Gaston warns Belle that she will end up being in the streets as a beggar if she doesn't marry him, but she still refuses by saying that she's not that simple to hang out with, much to his dismay.
Eventually, in the tavern, Gaston gets cheered up by LeFou and the villagers following his failed attempts to woo Belle, right before Belle's father Maurice arrives and exclaims that Belle has been taken prisoner by the Beast (the son of a wicked king) in his castle. The villagers instantly laugh at this as they find Maurice to be insane (due to a spell cast by an enchantress that erases all the townsfolk's memories of the castle), but Gaston decides to tag along, seeing an opportunity to get Maurice's approval for Belle's hand in marriage. However, as they stroke into the woods with LeFou, Gaston tires himself of Maurice's apparently groundless story and begins to lose his temper with the old man. LeFou intervenes, calming Gaston down with memories of the war. Even as Gaston apologies for his outburst and proceeds to ask for Maurice's blessing, an indignant Maurice refuses. Outraged, Gaston knocks Maurice out in a fit of rage, then ties him up in a tree and leaves him to be fed by hungry wolves (despite LeFou's objections), though Maurice ends up being saved and nursed back to health by a hermit, Agathe.
As Gaston returns to his tavern, he is shocked to see that Maurice has returned alive and is now accusing him of his attempted murder. However, Gaston uses his charisma to convince the villagers that Maurice is insane and must be locked up in the local asylum (even secretly silencing an uneasy LeFou from testifying against him and convincing everyone that Agathe is untrustworthy). To that end, Gaston gets the villagers to torment Maurice before having the local asylum owner Monsieur D'Arque to take Maurice away. However, Belle arrives back to the village and foils this by revealing the Beast's existence with the magic mirror that he has given to her, making the townsfolk realize that Maurice was telling the truth. Overwhelmed by this sudden display of "sorcery" and "dark magic", fearing that this Beast has placed Belle under a love spell, and seizing a chance to improve his reputation in the village, an angry Gaston snaps out by stealing the magic mirror and rallies the villagers into helping him kill the Beast, much to Belle and Maurice's horror.
After having Monsieur D'Arque to lock up Belle and Maurice in the asylum carriage and keep them on watch, Gaston leads the villagers to attack the Beast's castle, which forced the castle servants to fight back against the villagers. During the battle, Maurice frees himself and Belle before allowing the latter to head to the castle while Gaston betrays the villagers by leaving them to their fates, even using LeFou as a human shield before leaving him for dead, which incited an outraged LeFou to side up with the servants, finally turning against the man he admired for years. As the villagers flee away in humiliation and defeat, Gaston heads over to the West Wing, where he finds the Beast sulking (as the latter lost his will to live after letting Belle go). Taking the opportunity, Gaston shoots the Beast, arrogantly claiming that Belle sent him over to kill him. However, Belle arrives to the rescue by breaking Gaston's arrows, throwing away his gun and briefly pushing him off the balcony into the roof, demanding him to stop. Undeterred by Belle's intervention, Gaston madly vows that he will mount the Beast's head in his tavern wall and marry Belle by force before climbing through the roof to finish the job. However, the Beast regains his will after witnessing Belle's return and realizing what Gaston said is a lie, so he fights back against Gaston for good.
After a brief fight, the Beast finally overpowers Gaston and grabs him by the neck, preparing to drop him off the tower for the trouble he caused. With his life at stake, Gaston begs for mercy, to which the Beast grudgingly obliges by coldly telling Gaston that he is not a beast. Shoving Gaston away from his sight, the Beast furiously orders him to leave the castle before climbing back on the castle balcony to reunite with Belle. However, Gaston retrieves his gun and shoots the Beast fatally twice from a footbridge, much to Belle's horror. However, Gaston's victory is short-lived when the footbridge breaks apart (due to the curse slowly crumbling the castle as the Beast succumbs to his wounds), leaving Gaston to fall screaming to his death to the castle floor below, similar to that of the original.