Meet the Cast for the Live-Action ‘Aladdin’ Remake
Well so much for all the trouble finding an actor to play Aladdin, I guess.
At their D23 convention, Disney has announced the cast of their live-action remake of the beloved animated classic Aladdin. If you’re not at the convention (or you’re there but you’re stuck on one of the lines that stretches from here to Neverland), they even tweeted the news for you:
The Will Smith as the Genie thing has long been rumored, and is now official. Smith certainly doesn’t have the dexterity with impressions that the late Robin Williams had, but his enormous charisma and boundless energy will both come in handy playing that part. I dunno if he’s going to sing like Williams did; maybe instead he can bring back the old Will Smith rap song that was required in most of his blockbusters from the late ’90s and early 2000s? “In Mesapotamia, born and raised, in this old lamp is where I spent most of my days!” etc.
As for the two leads. Mena Massoud has appeared in The 99 and will co-star in the upcoming Jack Ryan series for Amazon.
And Naomi Scott is no stranger to reboots; she was most recently seen as the Pink Ranger in the big-screen version of Power Rangers.
So there you go; a whole new cast for a whole new version of Aladdin. (We didn’t include a picture of Will Smith; we’re going to assume you have a vague idea what he looks like.) They’re people! They’re real! This movie is definitely happening! But who is going to play the Magic Carpet? This is the live-action Aladdin, it better not be some boring inanimate rug or we are going to be so mad. We’ll have more from D23 throughout the weekend.