It’s no “Harry Styles playing Prince Eric,” but this seems like a good move for Disney’s live-action remake of The Little Mermaid: According to Variety, Hamilton’s Daveed Diggs is currently “in talks” to take on the role of Sebastian in the movie, meaning he would get two of the best songs from the original movie and he would get to play a talking crab. On a related note, one of the big hooks of this new take on the story is that Lin-Manuel Miranda (from Hamilton!) is working on some new songs with original composer Alan Menken, so Sebastian might even end up getting a few more good songs by the time this thing actually gets made.
Disney’s The Little Mermaid will star Halle Bailey as Ariel, with Javier Bardem in talks to play her father King Triton, Melissa McCarthy playing Ursula, Awkwafina possibly playing Scuttle the seagull , and Jacob Tremblay possibly playing Flounder the fish. For those who haven’t seen the original, it’s about a girl who lives under the sea and wants to be part of that world that is above the sea, so she makes a deal with a sea witch—who has a nasty habit of tricking poor, unfortunate souls—to trade her voice for a pair of legs. There’s a prince who has to kiss the girl, and there’s a chef who… also gets a song for some reason?
Anyway, this is not to be confused with ABC’s live TV Little Mermaid musical, which is also happening.