‘The Little Mermaid’ Live-Action Remake Finds Its Prince Eric in Jonah Hauer-King

Disney’s live-action The Little Mermaid has finally found its Prince Eric. Jonah Hauer-King, whose credits include A Dog’s Way Home and the recent, non-Greta Gerwig-directed BBC adaptation of Little Women, has landed the role of the human who falls hard for mermaid Ariel, played by Halle Bailey. At one point Harry Styles was announced in Prince Eric role, but the singer-turned-actor had to bow out of the project.

Numerous outlets are reporting that relatively unknown actor Jonah Hauer-King has joined The Little Mermaid remake cast as Prince Eric. He joins a line-up that includes Halle Bailey as Ariel, Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, Awkwafina as Scuttle, Jacob Tremblay as Flounder, and Javier Bardem as King Triton. Daveed Diggs is in talks to voice Sebastian. Rob Marshall is directing and will produce along with John DeLuca, Marc Platt, and Lin-Manuel Miranda. You can expect this live-action take to include songs from the original film by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, as well as new songs by Menken (music) and Miranda (lyrics).

The original Little Mermaid was released in 1989 and is considered to be the first film in the Disney Renaissance, when the House of Mouse stopped pumping out flops and started creating movies that are heralded today as classics. This new take joins the growing list of Disney live-action remakes, where the studio looks to its past and asks, “Can we just do this again, with less visual flair?”

In the original The Little Mermaid, “rebellious 16-year-old mermaid Ariel is fascinated with life on land. On one of her visits to the surface, which are forbidden by her controlling father, King Triton, she falls for a human prince. Determined to be with her new love, Ariel makes a dangerous deal with the sea witch Ursula to become human for three days. But when plans go awry for the star-crossed lovers, the king must make the ultimate sacrifice for his daughter.”

Production on the new Little Mermaid is expected to begin early next year.

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