This past summer, it initially looked like singing superstar Harry Styles would hop aboard Disney’s live-action remake of The Little Mermaid to play Prince Eric, but he later turned down the role to focus on his musical endeavors. Since then, Disney fans have waited with bated breath to learn who will fill the Prince Eric shoes instead, and tonight brings word that the role has gone to Jonah Hauer-King.
If the name sounds familiar to you, that’s because it was reported back in September that Jonah Hauer-King was one of two actors who’d tested for Prince Eric in this new version of The Little Mermaid, the other being Krypton’s Cameron Cuffe. Almost two full months later, Variety reports that following two screen tests, the latter of which occurred on November 9, Hauer-King has been chosen to bring Prince Eric to life in this adaptation.
Until now, Jonah Hauer-King’s most prominent credits have included TV projects like Little Women, Howard’s End and World on Fire, and movies like Postcards from London, Old Boys and A Dog’s Way Home. He’s also set to appear in Once Upon a Time in Staten Island. Since Hauer-King been cast to play one of The Little Mermaid’s most important characters, it’s a good bet that he will be catapulted to new levels of fame once the world sees him as the new Prince Eric.
Rather than take drastic creative liberties with the story akin to something like Maleficent or the upcoming Mulan, from what’s been revealed so far, The Little Mermaid sounds like it’ll be a relatively faithful re-telling of the 1989 same-named animated movie, though obviously there will still be some changes. The live-action movie was first announced to be in development in early 2016, but it’s only been within the past year that it’s started making notable progress.
Jonah Hauer-King joins a cast that includes Halle Bailey as Ariel, Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, Jacob Tremblay as Flounder, Awkwafina as a gender-swapped Scuttle, Javier Bardem as King Triton and Daveed Diggs as Sebastian.
Behind the scenes, Rob Marshall and David Magee, both of whom worked on Mary Poppins Returns, are directing and writing The Little Mermaid, respectively. In addition to incorporating plenty of original songs from the original Little Mermaid, the remake will have some new tunes created by Alan Menken, who composed the animated movie, and lyrics provided by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
The Little Mermaid doesn’t have an assigned release date yet, but production is set to begin sometime in early 2020, so keep checking in with CinemaBlend to learn how the movie’s coming along. For now, you can find out what movies will hit the silver screen next year with our 2020 release schedule.
