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Credit: DisneyOver the past few years, we have seen Disney attempt to be much more diverse and inclusive in all aspects of the company, including casting choices. This, for some, has recently gone too far — and now Disney is seemingly looking to make it right.
Previously, Disney launched the Reimagine Tomorrow initiative, stating that “We haven’t always got it right.” This came after the Cast Member dress code changed when it came to the “Disney Look,” allowing Cast Members to express themselves more while at work. On top of that, we have already heard of the progress coming along on the new Princess and the Frog attraction, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, that is replacing Splash Mountain’s racist undertone scenes due to the Song of the South IP, as well as changing the storyline on both Walt Disney World Resort’s and Disneyland Resort’s Jungle Cruise attraction to ensure cultural appropriation disappears.
Following this, we saw Disney begin to change their casting, placing different ethnicities into characters that were previously created as Caucasian. The first casting choice to make headlines was when Disney announced they had finally found who would play the iconic mermaid, Ariel, for the upcoming live-action remake The Little Mermaid. The Disney Princess and mermaid, Ariel, will be played by actress Halle Bailey, known for her work in ABC’s Grown-ish and as one half of the famous R&B singing duo Chloe and Halle.
But it wasn’t long before the Internet spoke about the decision on Bailey’s casting. While many fans were highly supportive, others immediately took to Twitter and other social media platforms to express their frustrations about the casting of the Disney Princess character. The hashtag #NotMyAriel immediately began to trend.
The Walt Disney Company, Jodi Benson (the original voice for Ariel in the 1989 animated classic), Lin-Manuel Miranda, one of the producers and composers for the upcoming live-action remake, and others spoke out defending Disney’s decision and Bailey’s casting of the character.
Then we heard Yara Shahidi, currently known for her role on ABC’s Black-ish, is looking forward to playing the iconic sidekick, Tinker Bell, in the upcoming live-action film, Peter Pan and Wendy.
Most recently, the upcoming Snow White live-action film starring Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot has hit some heat. There are two main instances that caused fans to outrage with the upcoming film. Firstly, there will be no dwarfs in the film, but seven magical creatures, which deviates from the iconic story that Walt Disney himself created on screen. The second comes from an interview where Zegler and Gadot say that Snow White will not have a prince charming, and there is no one that needs to save her.
At this point, fans accused Disney of creating a totally different film, and creating a pseudo-feminist film that makes Snow White’s ideals and behavior be seen as wrong, creating a corrupt narrative for females who may dream of finding their “prince charming”, or behaving as more of a softer character, than someone who is constantly trying to be the leader, as Zegler said Snow White will now be. With this, fans have been outraged at Disney pushing their “woke” agenda.
Most recently, there have been rumors that Disney’s top choice for Rapunzel in a Tangled live-action film is Florence Pugh (Midsommar, Black Widow, Oppenheimer, Don’t Worry Darling, Little Women) and will begin once the once the SAG-AFTRA strike wraps up. When fans of the film heard of the potential casting choice, many seemed shocked and delighted to see Disney casting a character in a live-action film that looks like the cartoon, as we have seen with Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast.
Pop Crave (@popcrave) shared: “Florence Pugh is reportedly Disney’s top choice to play Rapunzel in the rumored live-action adaptation of ‘Tangled.'” and the post already has thousands of comments.
Florence Pugh is reportedly Disney’s top choice to play Rapunzel in the rumored live-action adaptation of 'Tangled.'
🔗: https://t.co/ynBEeA9oTq pic.twitter.com/n1qL2dkLKq
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) August 12, 2023
Some fans of the story didn’t believe it, saying, “They are gonna pick a white girl? AINTNOWAY”, while others said, “finally no race change💀”. Other fans explored similar sentiments, stating, “Surprised they’re using an actual white woman more than anything. Figured they’d go for Asian this time,” and “She looks too much like the animated character. There is no way.”
Others were not happy to see Florence cast and thought it should be a person of color. One fan said, “I’m sorry…. Tangled … is the one you choose not to go with African American or Latina casting…Who even makes decisions at Disney…”.
At the moment, this casting choice is in no way official, but it seems that the majority of Disney fans are in favor of this casting choice.
Disney’s animated movie doesn’t so much have Rapunzel (Mandy Moore) rescued from said tower by a prince. Instead, Rapunzel recruits the thief Flynn Rider (Zachary Levi) to take her to see the “floating lights” that appear on her birthday each year – which, unbeknownst to her, are actually released by her real parents in hopes of finding their lost princess.
Florence Pugh isn’t a newcomer to the Walt Disney Company. The British actress currently portrays Yelena Belova, the adopted sister of Black Widow, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She made her MCU debut in Black Widow and was a recurring character in the Disney+ series Hawkeye. Her next appearance is set to come in Thunderbolts, which is set to premiere in December 2024 (but will likely be pushed back due to the strikes) — in conclusion, Pugh is already taking the Marvel world by storm.
Would you like to see Florence Pugh as Rapunzel in a live-action Tangled?