The Little Mermaid, which stars Halle Bailey as the title role, received its first look on Day 1 of the D23 exhibition. Ariel (Bailey) swims across a shipwreck in the dramatic underwater visuals that open the one and a half minute teaser before she begins singing the words to the well-known song “Part of Your World.”
More than three years after Disney said Bailey will be in the live-action version, the trailer has finally been released. Stars like Melissa McCarthy (Ursula), Javier Bardem (King Triton), Jonah Hauer-King (Prince Eric), Awkwafina (Scuttle), and Daveed Diggs (Sebastian) have since been added to the cast by the studio.
The movie based on the Hans Christian Andersen story will be directed by Rob Marshall (Chicago, Mary Poppins Returns). David Magee and Jane Goldman wrote the script.
“It’s the most complicated movie we’ve done,” Marshall told TribLive about the film earlier this year. “So much of it is shot up in the air with everything on wires and the actors on this apparatus called a ‘tuning fork’ and teeter-totters so they swim and move and turn and flip. Everything is choreographed within an inch of its life.”