Disney has been putting together a cast for its inevitable live-action remake of The Little Mermaid of late, and it looks like we've now got a Prince Eric to add to the list. According to Variety, Harry Styles is "in early negotiations" to play the male love-interest role in the adaptation.
We last saw Styles onscreen in Dunkirk, where - to the pleasant surprise of many - he delivered a pretty dang good performance. He was also in the running for the lead role in Baz Luhrmann's Elvis biopic, though that role went to Austin Butler. His casting is canny for Disney, if it pans out, given the former One Direction singer's likely ability to bring all the girls and/or boys to the yard. Given the excitement over Beyoncé acting in The Lion King, it seems popstars will become a big part of Disney's approach moving forward.
Styles will join Halle Bailey as Ariel, Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, and possibly Jacob Tremblay as Flounder and Awkwafina as Scuttle. Rob Marshall, familiar to Disney from his recent gig on Mary Poppins Returns, is directing. The original songs will be in there, along with new ones from composer Alan Menken and lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda. It remains to be seen how many songs will be turned into weird speak-singing hybrids a la The Lion King's "Be Prepared."
The Little Mermaid will begin principal photography in April 2020. How do you feel about this? As far as we're concerned, the live-action remake tsunami is just going to keep hitting us until it runs out of source material (and then beyond, if they elect to adapt the straight-to-video sequels), so we're beginning to feel a little numb to all this.