We’ve been through a lot of ups and downs with Disney’s new reboot of The Little Mermaid – yes, we had our hopes up that Harry Styles would take the role of Prince Eric and were then left heartbroken when he turned the role down. But it looks like the production may have found their Sebastian in Hamilton star Daveed Diggs.
Variety reports Diggs is in talks to play Sebastian but hasn’t formally accepted the role at this stage.
This is the first piece of casting news for Sebastian and with Diggs’ singing and rapping skills, he could be the perfect person for the role.
It probably also helps that Hamilton creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda will be producing the film and composing new songs – maybe they’ll even write a full Sebastian rap song?!
Miranda is such a huge fan of The Little Mermaid he even named his son Sebastian after the character.
Diggs has had a very busy few years, he recently starred in Velvet Buzzsaw, Black-ish, Wonder, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and The Get Down to name a few.
Halle Bailey is attached to play Ariel, while Jacob Tremblay and Awkwafina are set to star as Flounder and Scuttle, respectively.
Variety also reports Melissa McCarthy will definitely be playing Ursula and Javier Bardem will play King Triton.
As for Prince Eric, the most recent report from Deadline revealed actors Cameron Cuffe and Jonah Hauer-King recently tested for the role with director Rob Marshall.
Production is set to start early next year so no doubt we’ll get some solid casting announcements soon.