Last week it was revealed that Melissa McCarthy is in talks to star as Ursula in The Little Mermaid, Disney’s latest live-action remake. And now it’s been revealed who they have in mind for Flounder and Scuttle – and they’re absolutely perfect!
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jacob Tremblay is being considered for Ariel’s bestie Flounder, and Awkwafina has reportedly entered negotiations to play Scuttle the seagull who teaches Ariel everything she knows about human culture and society – most of which is, of course, very wrong.
Tremblay is best known for his role in the Oscar-winning drama Room and has since appeared in Wonder, The Predator and Good Boys which is out later this year.
Awkwafina has had an amazing few years, starring in Ocean’s Eight and Crazy Rich Asians. She recently landed her first lead role in The Farewell which will be released in the coming months and she’s also starring in Jumanji: The Next Level.
It looks as though this movie could actually be pretty good if Disney is able to assemble these three stars in the supporting roles.
Now, they’ll no doubt start working on filling other roles like Ariel, Eric, King Trident and Sebastian.
There have been rumours Spider-Man star Zendaya is in talks to play Ariel in the past – she’s even been rocking red hair as an homage to Mary Jane for the Spider-Man: Far From Home press tour. So, maybe she’ll keep her hair red if she gets the gig?
Rob Marshall will be in the director’s chair for this film and told Entertainment Weekly the movie will follow the same family-friendly interpretation of the Hans Christian Anderson story.
“It’s about a woman finding her voice. A girl finding her voice, actually. And that immediately just felt like an interesting, timely piece that resonated with us.”
Alan Menken, who composed the music for the original movie, will be back to write new music for the remake with Lin-Manuel Miranda. Miranda will also produce the movie.
In case you need a reminder of all of Disney’s forthcoming live action remakes, here’s every single one they’re working on (some of which will go straight to Disney+):
- The Lion King
- Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (not technically a remake, but whatever.)
- Lady and the Tramp
- Mulan
- Cruella
- Lilo and Stitch
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame
- The Little Mermaid
- The Sword in the Stone
- Pinocchio
- Prince Charming
- Jungle Book 2
- Tink
- Peter Pan
- Rose Red (a new version of Snow White that will focus on her sister)
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
Wow, that’s a LOT of remakes…