Aladdin: Disney receives flak for introducing new 'white' character into story of live-action adaptation

Actor Billy Magnussen has been cast as a new character in Disneys live-action Aladdin. The 32-year-old star will play Prince Anders, an ‘original character’ not seen in the 1992 animated classic, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

People on Twitter and other social media have not received the news of this new character well, considering that the original Disney movie did not have any ‘white’ characters, and well, Magnussen is white.

They wrote a new character in for a remake of the cartoon Aladdin.....*looks at new character* pic.twitter.com/0QuGdskP9u

— 🐶ThaTzuBurr🐻 (@BaeTzuBurr) September 6, 2017

#aladdin I am so confused to why they add a new white character to a complete story that is set in the Middle East?🤦🏽‍♀️ pic.twitter.com/71xzOpFXCS

— booklover☕️📚 (@booklover_ny) September 6, 2017

Some have criticised the makers of Aladdin of whitewashing, while others are not surprised, considering that Disney has, in the past, said that it is difficult to find actors to cast in this movie. At first, they opened auditions only for actors from the Middle East. As a result of apparently not being able to find anyone who fit the bill, they opened up the auditions for Indian actors, and it was said that Dev Patel and Riz Ahmed were being considered for the lead role.

Disney has also been notorious for casting white actors to play persons of colour for many years, in films like Mulan. But going to the extent of introducing a new character into a narrative that is ostensibly about people of colour set in the Middle East is a new low, even for Disney.

This Guy Ritchie-directed movie will star Mena Massoud as Aladdin, Naomi Scott as princess Jasmine, Marwan Kenzari as villain Jafar and Will Smith as Genie. Genie was originally voiced by Robin Williams in the 1992 film.

John August has written the script of film, while Dan Lin, who worked with Ritchie on Sherlock Holmes, is set to produce it through his Lin Pictures banner.

With inputs from PTI