In recent years, Disney has made it a habit to remake all the Disney Princess movies for live-action, with new versions of Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid and so forth hitting theaters. Rachel Zegler will next star in the live-action Snow White, and it's been reported for years now that Disney is also developing a remake for Tangled. That, of course, begs the question, who is going to play Rapunzel? Since one casting rumor put Mean Girls’ Avantika up in the princess’ tower for the part, the South Asian actress was hit with an onslaught of racist backlash, and Never Have I Ever’s Maitreyi Ramakrishnan is not having it.
There is currently no merit to the rumors that Avantika will play Rapunzel in a Tangled remake. Per Buzzfeed News, the original source came from an X post that was shared in March by a user that is not part of press or any viable credentials. The post has since been deleted too. Even so, let’s get into what Ramakrishnan had to say and what people are saying about the rumor.
Maitreyi Ramakrishnan Calls Out Racist Backlash To Rapunzel Rumors
Maitreyi Ramakrishnan is well-known for her role in Netflix’s Never Have I Ever, which ended with Season 4 last year after being a hit series. Here’s what she wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter) on Tuesday:
and they finally woke up to realize it was all just rumours and the sources never existed. good job! and to the racists, y’all still need a hobby fr🤡 … like for any fancast you may have for any actor, south asian or not, all the racist trolls can just stay basement dwellers. y’all probably don’t even go outside to the movies anyway let alone touch grass
Ramakrishnan must have been following the backlash herself, especially considering she put herself in the ring to play the role last year. The Never Have I Ever actress told CBS in 2023 that she thought it’d be “really cool” if Rapunzel was a “South Asian girl.” As she witnessed the way people actually treat an actress who is rumored for the role, she spoke out, calling the haters “basement dwellers.”
What Is The Internet Saying About Avantika Playing Disney’s Rapunzel?
Even though we can confirm that there are no real grounds right now to believe Avantika is up for a live-action Rapunzel, people certainly went over to the actress from the 2024 Mean Girls cast to make sure she knew she was not welcome in the role. Here’s some of the comments that have surfaced on Avantika’s Instagram:
- “You’re beautiful and I’m sure you are an amazing actor but the last thing you deserve is a role meant to be played by a white person with BLOND hair”
- “Yeah nope not Rapunzel material”
- “Don't be Rapunzel please”
Granted, people took to the comment section of posts who have nothing to do with Rapunzel to write such things. That being said, others went to the same comment section to instead offer supportive words like this:
- “My Rapunzel, keep changing the narrative 😍”
- “I hope you get the role of Rapunzel”
- “My rapunzel and my Karen!”
Avantika recently played Karen in Mean Girls and was also in Disney Channel's Spin, Netflix's Senior Year with Rebel Wilson, and will be in the upcoming horror movie Tarot. Now, if we hear about a real Tangled remake in the works, we’ll definitely let you know here on CinemaBlend. You can check out all the upcoming Disney movies coming out in the coming years until then!
