Disney is remaking “Aladdin,” and the Internet is not having it. Unlike previous Disney remakes like “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Jungle Book,” which remained pretty true to their original scripts, the Aladdin story contains some pretty significant tweaks. For example, it’s adding a new potential suitor for Jasmine, Prince Anders, played by Billy Magnussen — a white actor.
Aladdin fans are upset not only at the changed storyline (which, arguably, had some stereotypes that needed to be addressed) but also the choice to add a white actor to the mix where there previously were no white characters. The casting of Naomi Scott, who is of British and Indian heritage, as Jasmine in July also angered fans, who said the decision was playing into the Hollywood idea that “brown [people] are interchangeable.”
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Prince Anders is described by Disney as simply “a suitor from Skanland and potential husband for Princess Jasmine.”
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Other actors signed up to participate in the film include Mena Massoud as Aladdin and Will Smith as the Genie. According to a Facebook post from Smith, production for the film started this week.