halle bailey cast as ‘the little mermaid’ in live-action remake

Holy shit, y’all! Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” is getting the live-action treatment and none other than Halle of Chloe x Halle will star in the lead role of Ariel! That’s right, a Black girl is going to play the Little Mermaid. This reminds me of what is hands-down the greatest fairy tale film, “The Wonderful World of Disney, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella” (1997)  starring Brandy which broke barriers with race-blind casting. We had a Filipino Prince Christopher (Paolo Montalban) whose parents were Whoopi Goldberg (“Queen Constantina”) and Victor Garbor (“King Maximillian”), in love with a young Black woman and that shit was AWESOME.

Joining Bailey in the Rob Marshall-directed remake are Jacob Trembly (“Room”) as Flounder and Awkwafina (“Crazy Rich Asians”) as Scuttle, the talking seagull. Melissa McCarthy is in talks to play Ursula, which sucks because it should totally be Lizzo. The live-action film will feature original music from the 1989 animated version with new tunes from one of the film’s original composer Alan Menken as well as Lin-Manuel Miranda (of course). Miranda is also producing the project alongside Marshall, Marc Platt, and John DeLuca.