Disney is taking audiences back to Atlantica.
On Day 1 of its D23 expo, the studio shared a first-look at The Little Mermaid, starring actress/singer Halle Bailey as the titular character. The one-and-half minute teaser begins with striking underwater shots, as Ariel (Bailey) swims through a shipwreck before singing lyrics from the iconic tune, “Part of Your World.”
The trailer arrives more than three years after Disney announced it had cast Bailey in the live-action remake. Since then, the studio has added stars like Melissa McCarthy (Ursula), Javier Bardem (King Triton), Jonah Hauer-King (Prince Eric), Awkwafina (Scuttle), and Daveed Diggs (Sebastian) to the cast.
Filmmaker Rob Marshall (Chicago and Mary Poppins Returns) was tapped the direct the film based on the Hans Christian Andersen’s tale. The script was written by Jane Goldman and David Magee.
“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.”
The movie will feature original music by Alan Menken, who worked on the original 1989 animated film. Lin-Manuel Miranda also co-wrote four new songs.
You can check out The Little Mermaid trailer via YouTube above. The film is set to hit U.S. theaters on May 26, 2023.
