It was a heartbreaking day when we found out Harry Styles had turned down the role of Prince Eric in Disney’s live-action reboot of The Little Mermaid.
Now, two fairly unknown actors have tested for the role with director Rob Marshall, so we may be closer to finding out who our Eric is!
Deadline reports actors Cameron Cuffe and Jonah Hauer-King were at Pinewood Studios in London on Monday with Marshall with no word yet on whether one of those tests landed either actor ahead of the other.
Cuffe recently starred in Florence Foster Jenkins and played the role of Superman’s grandfather Seg-El in Krypton. Hauer-King has a few more credits to his name and recently starred in A Dog’s Way Home.
They both certainly have the look for Prince Eric:
Prince Eric doesn’t sing in the original Disney film, but had the role gone to Styles we wonder if it would have been written in.
Speaking to The Face, Styles revealed he wanted to focus on music and that’s why he turned the role down.
“I want to put music out and focus on that for a while. But everyone involved in it was amazing, so I think it’s going to be great. I’ll enjoy watching it, I’m sure.”
He was also keen to star as Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s upcoming biopic, but the role went to Austin Butler in the end.
13 Reasons Why star Christian Navarro has also auditioned for the role, but it’s unclear if he made it to the same stage as Cuffe and Hauer-King.
According to Deadline there’s still a large pool of actors in the mix for the role, so it won’t necessarily come down to Cuffe and Hauer-King.
Whoever does land the role will be starring alongside Halle Bailey as Ariel, Awkwafina as Scuttle and Jacob Tremblay as Flounder. Javier Bardem is expected to star as King Triton and Melissa McCarthy is rumoured for Ursula.