Earlier today, Entertainment Weekly revealed the cover for its big year-end preview issue, a move which gave us our first good look at Will Smith's Genie, from Disney's forthcoming Aladdin remake. Decked out in an ornate blue coat, half a dozen bracelets and with a jaunty ponytail sprouting from the top of his skull, Smith looked...well, far less blue than we expected him to look.
Here it is, in case you missed it.
As you might expect, the internet was not thrilled about Genie's new appearance, and was not shy about sharing their related opinions on social media. But shortly after EW's cover reveal occurred, the site ran an accompanying post featuring a few quotes from the film's cast and crew, including this passage:
"The final version of Will Smith’s Genie in his blue floating lamp form isn’t quite finished — the film is due in theaters on May 24, 2019 — but Ritchie gives EW a tease of what he’ll look like. “I wanted a muscular 1970s dad,” the director says. “He was big enough to feel like a force — not so muscular that he looked like he was counting his calories, but formidable enough to look like you knew when he was in the room.”
This has created a bit of confusion, but if we're parsing that correctly, it means Smith will not only be appearing in human form as Genie, but also in a form more recognizable to Aladdin fans. An Instagram post made by Smith shortly thereafter specifically confirms he will be blue in the movie, as well.
So what's the deal with this morning's photos? Seems likely that Smith will appear in his human form during X number of scenes, while rocking the classic Genie look in others (probably when the situation demands he do something particularly Genie-like). It's weird that Disney didn't roll out a photo of Smith's Genie form alongside these other photos, to be sure, but also there's probably no need to panic just yet. It'll be in there, in some shape, way or form.
Anyway, this has been an update on Will Smith's appearance in the 2019 Guy Ritchie film Aladdin. Please update your records accordingly.