Halle Bailey has been chosen to play as Ariel in the live-action The Little Mermaid (2019) and people are not happy.

The decision to cast the 19-year-old Halle Bailey (Grown-ish) as Ariel in the live-action Disney remake has been met with mixed responses, to say the least. Bailey is a talented musician; one half of the sister duo 'Chloe x Halle'. Director Rob Marshall has endless praise for the soon-to-be mermaid, crediting her with the “spirit, heart, youth, innocence and substance” to play Ariel. She’s even got the seal of approval from original Ariel, Jodi Benson. Not to mention the overwhelmingly positive response from parents excited to take their children to see a Disney princess who looks like them, eager to show their children the representation that they didn’t get in their youth.

So, what’s the issue? Well, ‘hardcore fans’ have come out of the woodwork to express their discontent with a black teenager playing a fictional character...who is a mermaid...in the mythical city of Atlantis...whose best friend is a talking fish. It started with a troll account using Pinterest photos, and an Instagram model’s picture to incite backlash over Bailey’s casting, to which, plenty of very real accounts responded echoing the same sentiment.

The idea that a white fictional character can’t be played by a black person is, in a word, ridiculous. The idea that it’s the same as whitewashing is something called “false equivalence” – which is when two opposing arguments are perceived as logically equivalent when that isn’t the case. Ariel’s story isn’t dependent on her race like Tiana or Mulan. She’s a mermaid who finds love in a human prince and decides to stay on land with him. Tiana is a black woman who is disadvantaged because of her race which had caused her to develop her hard-working, self-sufficient nature that is the driving force of her character. Mulan goes to fight for China in her father’s place out of honour and love for her family. Do you see where I’m going with this? Speaking of Tiana, some critics have expressed that we already have a black princess so why do we need to change original characters? And yeah, one black princess out of the pantheon of Disney princesses – who, is only a woman for 41 minutes of the 1 hour 38 minutes film, for the rest she is a frog. Out of the “official eleven”, only four are women of colour and Moana, Esmerelda, Kida, Lilo and Nani aren’t even classed as Disney princesses, even though they all fit the requirements for a princess. So that argument invalidates itself.

There are claims that as Hans Christian Anderson was Danish, the story should be true to the original and be about Danish characters. However, if people really wanted the story to be “accurate,” to the original Anderson fairy-tale, they should know that: Ariel’s sisters try to get Ariel to kill Eric, she refuses and dissolves into sea foam, but, I doubt that would go down well. There is also a working theory by gay historian Rictor Norton that Anderson, wrote the story to an Edvard Collin around the announcement of his engagement to another woman, so if you really want it to be original, you’re going to have to make it gay, fellas. Or just say you’re racist and go.

Obviously, it must be said the reaction to the casting has been overwhelmingly positive. Representation for young people of colour is needed, regardless of the story, and its heartwarming to see people recognise that. While Disney’s live-actions have been lukewarm, to say the least, this film may be different as it gives us something new. The reason why other live-actions remakes may not have been as successful as they planned is because…exactly that. They’re remakes. A recycled story with perhaps a few new songs or a character here or there but recycled, nonetheless.

But a story that represents young black girls, and encourages them to see themselves as the princesses of a story can never be a bad thing. Casting for Ariel’s sisters or King Titan haven’t been confirmed, along with other key characters so it is currently unclear whether they are planning on doing colour-blind casting, similar to Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella or will cast an entirely black cast for the mermaid royalty but either way, we’ll be seeing more people of colour on our screens very soon.

By Amandeep Paul.

(she/her)

IG: xx.amandeep

Amandeep is a TV. Film & Entertainment writer @ PARDON! read more about her on our TEAM! page.