Guy Ritchie’s live-action Aladdin movie project has to delay its July production schedule to a later date because the casting director is struggling to find a “Capable” Indian/Middle-eastern actor to play the role of Aladdin. Few artists have reached the final stages of selection process like Dev Patel & Riz Ahmed, but due to their lack of singing talent, they are not yet confirmed. Around 2000 actors and actresses have read the roles of Aladdin and Jasmine till now as part of the auditions.
For the role of Jasmine, Naomi Scott (Power Rangers) and an Indian actress named Tara Sutaria are being eyed, but even Jasmine’s actress cannot be confirmed at this moment because of the unavailability of Aladdin actor. They need to put the right pair in the movie as the whole movie will revolve around them, keeping the chemistry perfect is a necessity in this case.
The determined search for the right actor is also a good sign in a way; it shows that Disney is not going to compromise with ethnicity or the quality of the Aladdin movie even if it gets delayed. Will Smith is going to voice the famous character of Genie. The casting team is looking for a famous actor for the role of Jaffar, the main villain in the Aladdin’s storyline.
As fans of the original Aladdin content, we need to understand that this is not the first time we see an incredibly lengthy process for selection of the main lead. Disney has done the extensive cast search in the past, and we still got fantastic actors who delivered memorable performances, some good examples are, Daisy Ridley for the role of Rey in Star Wars sequels, and Lily James for the role of Cinderella. Both these actresses were selected after auditioning thousands of candidates.
The new Aladdin movie is going to be a musical, hence two movie-musical veterans Chris Montan (Pocahontas, Toy Story, Hercules, and Frozen) and Marc Platt (Mary Poppins Returns) has been given the responsibility to administer the musical part of the movie. By looking at all the cavalry that Disney has brought in, we can easily say that they want this movie to be an immense success Period.
Shooting is scheduled to start in August, and they still don’t have the leads. There is an excellent chance that this film’s release date is going to be pushed to a later date.
