Character guide
Hans
from Frozen
Hans is the charming prince who becomes Anna's love interest and eventual betrayer in Frozen, the 2018 Disney musical by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez.
- Show
- Frozen
- Broadway premiere
- 2018
- Role
- Supporting
- Music by
- Anderson-Lopez & Lopez
Who played Hans?
- On screen
- Santino Fontana (voice), Disney's 2013 film
- Originated on Broadway
- John Riddle (2018)
Hans: from the film to Broadway
Broadway compared with the 2013 Disney film
Hans gets his own theme song on Broadway. Santino Fontana voiced him in the 2013 Disney film, where his big number is the duet Love Is an Open Door with Anna. John Riddle originated Hans on Broadway in 2018, and the stage version adds Hans of the Southern Isles plus two reprises; in the second, sung with Anna, he reveals his plan to seize Arendelle's throne by letting her freeze to death and blaming Elsa.
He also joins Elsa and the townsmen in Monster, another song written for the stage.
Who is Hans?
Hans arrives in Arendelle for Elsa's coronation and quickly sweeps Anna off her feet, proposing marriage after only just meeting her. His charm and apparent devotion mask a calculated ambition to claim a throne of his own, revealed only after Anna is struck by Elsa's magic and needs true love's help to survive.
As the youngest of many royal brothers with little chance of inheriting power at home, Hans has spent years perfecting a likable public persona to win favor wherever he can, making his eventual betrayal of Anna both a shock and, in hindsight, a carefully foreshadowed twist.
Hans's role in Frozen
Hans is a supporting role that requires an actor to sell genuine, disarming charm before pivoting convincingly into cold villainy, most notably across the duet "Love Is an Open Door" with Anna and his later reveal. The tonal shift is central to the character's dramatic function.
John Riddle originated the role on Broadway, praised for making Hans's early charisma believable enough that his betrayal still lands as a genuine surprise. Audiences remember Hans as one of Disney's more effective subversions of the classic fairy tale prince archetype.
Hans: frequently asked questions
Who voiced Hans in Frozen?
Santino Fontana voiced Hans in Disney's 2013 animated film. John Riddle originated Hans in the 2018 Broadway musical, which gives him a new song, Hans of the Southern Isles.
Who is Hans in Frozen?
Hans is Prince Hans of the Southern Isles, the youngest of thirteen sons with little chance of ever inheriting his own family's throne. He courts and quickly becomes engaged to Anna, using his charm to mask a plan to seize the throne of Arendelle instead.
Was Hans ever Anna's boyfriend in Frozen?
Briefly, as her fiance rather than her boyfriend: Hans and Anna fall for each other in the duet Love Is an Open Door and get engaged the same day they meet. The engagement is over once Hans reveals he has been plotting to seize the throne of Arendelle.
Why does Hans want to marry Anna in Frozen?
Hans proposes to Anna the day they meet not out of love but as a shortcut to power. As the thirteenth son of a king, with little hope of inheriting his own family's throne, he sees marrying into Arendelle's royal family as his route to becoming king.
What show is Hans from?
Hans is a supporting character in Frozen, which opened on Broadway in 2018.
Is Hans a lead or supporting role?
Hans is a supporting role, initially Anna's suitor before being revealed as the story's antagonist.
Who wrote the music for Frozen?
Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez composed the music and lyrics for Frozen.
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