The Little Mermaid Latest News, Photos, and Videos

It’s official – The Little Mermaid cast has been confirmed!

Up until now, the only confirmed stars were Halle Bailey starring as Ariel, and Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric.

Now, Disney has officially solidified that Jacob Tremblay has taken on the role of Flounder, Melissa McCarthy will play Ursula, Awkwafina as Scuttle, Daveed Diggs as Sebastian and Javier Bardem as King Triton.

The live action remake of the movie will feature original music from the animated version from Alan Menken, as well new music by Alan and Lin-Manuel Miranda.

“Halle Bailey is going to be such an incredible Ariel,” Lin-Manuel told ET back in July. “And getting to write music for these characters that are probably the reason I started writing musicals in the first place, it was actually easier than I thought.”

No release date has been set yet, but given that they had to shut down production earlier this year due to Coronavirus, we may not see it until 2022.

Lin-Manuel Miranda is singing high praises for Halle Bailey in The Little Mermaid!

If you didn’t know, the Hamilton creator is actually involved in the movie – he’s co-writing four new songs with composer Alan Menken.

In a recent interview, Lin-Manuel opened up about Halle, who will of course be playing the lead role, Ariel.

“Halle Bailey is going to be such an incredible Ariel,” he told ET‘s Keltie Knight. “And getting to write music for these characters that are probably the reason I started writing musicals in the first place, it was actually easier than I thought.”

“But the hardest part was my own intimidation working with Alan Menken and that was entirely self-imposed,” Lin-Manuel added. “But when it came to how these characters speak and what they say, I’ve known that all my life. So that was a joy.”

Halle previously spoke out about how The Little Mermaid was supposed to begin filming right as the pandemic hit.

Halle Bailey is dishing on her live action remake of The Little Mermaid!

The 20-year-old singer and star of the movie opened up about having to halt production due to the pandemic.

“Well, just like everybody else, I mean, the whole world is kind of on pause. I was in London since the beginning of the year, and about to start filming, and of course this pandemic has caused everybody to slow down. I actually welcomed it because I was really missing my sister. She was here in LA, I was in London, so I was happy to get back to her,” Halle told ET.

“I’m just so very excited for when we start back again. It’s really coming together. I just feel so honored every day, even thinking about it or talking about it, I’m like, ‘What the heck?’ That’s really happening,” she added.

Halle was also asked if any casting would change with the scheduling changes.

“No, not at all. The cast are beautiful humans, inside and out, and everybody’s already like a family,” she said.

As for the possibility of a Chloe x Halle original song being on the soundtrack…

“Ooh! That would be so fun,” Halle and her sister Chloe said at the same time, with suspicious/excited looks on their faces, possibly hinting that it’s happening.

“Well, when it comes out, you’ll have to wait and see,” Halle added.

Production on the live action The Little Mermaid has come to a stop.

The film, starring Halle Bailey, has halted production as a precaution due to the Coronavirus.

“While there have been no confirmed cases of COVID-19 on our productions, after considering the current environment and the best interests of our cast and crew, we have made the decision to pause production on some of our live-action films for a short time. We will continue to assess the situation and restart as soon as feasible,” a Disney spokesperson said, via Deadline.

Other productions that have been stopped include Home Alone, The Last Duel, Shrunk, Nightmare Alley and Peter Pan & Wendy.

Disney Television Studios has also shut down production on Grey’s Anatomy and 16 TV pilots, THR reports.

Halle Bailey is dishing a little about her role in the upcoming live action The Little Mermaid!

The 19-year-old singer and actress will be taking on the role of Ariel and shared her excitement about the music.

Halle said that there will be classic songs like “Part of Your World”, but there will also be some new ones written by composer Alan Menken that aren’t in the original movie.

“I’ve been a fan of The Little Mermaid since I was 5, so those new songs are very exciting to me, as well as the old,” Halle told Popsugar. “That’s probably like, ding, ding, ding! My number one.”

She also opened up about taking on the iconic role and what she hopes to bring to the character.

“It’s so overwhelming, and beautiful, and breathtaking. I’m like, ‘Wow, am I really doing this?’” she said, hoping to bring “freshness.”

“Just being authentically me. It’s amazing that the directors have been so forward in asking me to show my true self,” Halle continued. “That’s been a really fun growing experience.”

Christian Navarro is sharing his thoughts on Jonah Hauer-King being cast as Prince Eric in The Little Mermaid!

If you forgot, the 28-year-old 13 Reasons Why actor sent in audition tapes for the lead role, which he ultimately did not land.

After the news of Jonah‘s casting was announced, Christian returned to Twitter briefly to share his thoughts, before deleting his account again. He also echoed his statement on his Instagram story.

“Just came back to say; after months of seeing every person of color they could think of for the role of Prince Eric, @DisneyStudios somehow still cast a white guy,” he wrote on Twitter. “I guess diversity is just a word. And THATS Hollywood. One brown person is enough, two brown leads is unthinkable.”

“Literally @disney saw a who’s who list of actors of color and STILL went with the white guy. So much for diversity. I guess two brown leads would have tanked the movie right? Boring,” he wrote on Instagram.

Many actors were reportedly being considered for the role of Prince Eric, including Harry Styles, who turned down the role and Cameron Cuffe, who tested for the role back in September. The Little Mermaid Live‘s Graham Phillips also expressed interest in bringing the character to life on the big screen.

Congratulations are in order for rising star Jonah Hauer-King as he just landed the role of a lifetime!

The 24-year-old British actor will be joining the star-studded cast of Disney’s live-action musical remake of The Little Mermaid in the role of Prince Eric.

You might recognizes Jonah from his work in A Dog’s Way Home and the 2017 BBC adaptation of Little Women.

The cast also includes Halle Bailey as Ariel, Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, and Javier Bardem as King Triton. Rounding out the cast are Jacob Tremblay as the voice of Flounder, Awkwafina as the voice of Scuttle, and Daveed Diggs as the voice as Sebastian.

Harry Styles was previously in talks to take on the role, but he ultimately passed on the role. Rob Marshall is directing the adaptation of The Little Mermaid and production will begin in early 2020.

READ MORE: Harry Styles Revealed Why He Passed on Prince Eric in ‘Little Mermaid’