As we all know, one of the next Disney classics to get the live-action treatment is 1989’s The Little Mermaid, which is being remade by director Rob Marshall. The project is now in its recruiting mode and it seems that one of the main characters has found its actor.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Daveed Diggs is in final negotiations to join the crew. Diggs will portray Ariel’s friend – Sebastian the crab. In the original animated film, the crab was voiced by Samuel E. Wright.
The film will also get an update of his Oscar-winning score made by composer Alan Menken with a new song written by Lin-Manuel Miranda. The film producers are Marc Platt, who executive produced the live-action Aladdin remake and who previously worked with Marshall on Mary Poppins Returns and John DeLuca, as well as Marshall and Miranda.
Diggs won both a Grammy and a Tony for his parts of Thomas Jefferson and Marquis de Lafayette in the original production of Hamilton. In 2018 he wrote produced and starred in Blindspotting – a production which earned him an Indie Spirit nomination.
Other roles who have been already cast are Halle Bailey who will play Ariel, Javier Bardem as King Triton, and Melissa McCarthy as the evil witch Ursula.
