Halle Bailey has been cast in the important role of Ariel in Disney’s live-action The Little Mermaid and racist white girls are losing their shit.
To give some background behind this story, Disney unveiled the news telling US trades like The Hollywood Reporter and Variety yesterday (Wednesday 3rd July) afternoon after notifying the budding actress the morning.
Bailey will be joining a cast that could include the likes of Melissa McCarthy, Jacob Tremblay and Awkwafina who are in talks to play/voice act the roles of Ursula, Flounder and Scuttle respectfully.
Rob Marshall is set to direct the project, after helming the Mary Poppins sequel, Mary Poppins Returns, said in a statement how and why 19-year-old got the role.
“After an extensive search, it was abundantly clear that Halle possesses that rare combination of spirit, heart, youth, innocence and substance – plus a glorious singing voice – all intrinsic qualities necessary to play this iconic role.”
So from the director’s own words, Bailey was THE RIGHT WOMAN FOR THE ROLE!!!!!!!! SO GET OVER YOUR FUCKING SELVES!!
If I’m being honest, when I first saw the breaking news on Twitter I thought it said Halle Berry and thought bloody hell Disney is going in a bold direction.
Additionally, The Little Mermaid was ever a Disney film that interests me and have only ever seen parts but as long as they have ‘Under The Sea’ then I’m good.
What’s surprising is the reaction from, especially from teen girls because it’s not like EVERY DISNEY PRINCESS HAS BEEN PLAYED BY A WHITE ACTRESS!
I haven’t seen Bailey act, but she has appeared in Grown-ish’s Yara Shahidi. She’s best known as one-half of Chloe x Halle, who are signed to Beyoncé’s record company Parkwood Entertainment.
But by the example of this clip alone, she’s going to smash the music and I look forward to seeing more.
Alan Menken and Lin-Manuel Miranda will be working on the music and Miranda will be producing Mermaid with Marshall, John DeLuca and Marc Platt, who worked with Marshall on Mary Poppins Returns and produced Guy Ritchie’s live-action Aladdin.
Chloe x Halle’s Twitter posted an awesome picture once the news broke out.
An early 2020 production start date is planned.
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