Update 7/29/2020 12:45 PM
We have been told that Musgraves has passed on the project. Another name has entered the mix for the role and will report as soon as we get new information on the project.
Disney has reportedly had meetings via Zoom with American singer-songwriter and six-time Grammy winner Kacey Musgraves for a role in Disney’s highly-anticipated live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid.
The role we hear she is circling for is Vanessa, the human persona that Ursula transformed into leading to the climax of the second act, creating conflict in the third act, “the end” of The Little Mermaid to stop Ariel from fulfilling the deal with Eric. Through her involvement on the project could be entirely different.
I’ve had a number of people confirm this but couldn’t get a confirmation on whether or not these meetings have gone anywhere at this point, so it should be noted there is a chance she could have passed. Reps for Musgraves have yet to respond.
Musgraves joins an all-star cast that includes Halle Bailey as Ariel, Jonah-Hauer King as Prince Eric, Melissa McCarthy as the villainous Sea Witch Ursula, Javier Bardem as King Triton, Jacob Tremblay as Flounder, Daveed Diggs as Sebastian, and Awkwafina as Scuttle.
Filming is expected to start production this Summer at Pinewood Studios in London. The film was just days away from filming back in March until the COVID-19 outbreak caused the studio to close production, sending the cast and crew back home. Now, crew members for the film will be allowed to return as the British government is granting a number of film and TV productions exemption from following quarantine rules.
Read: Disney’s Live-Action ‘Peter Pan’ Moves Production Start To March 2021
Directed by Rob Marshall (Mary Poppins Returns, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides), the film will feature music from the 1989 animated classic as well as four brand-new songs. Menken has teased that those songs will consist of new ones for both King Triton (Bardem) and Scuttle (Awkwafina), we also hear Prince Eric will get his own song as well, and that another will feature a duo between both Ariel and Eric.
Kacey Musgraves was recently featured on the soundtrack for Disney’s billion-dollar hit sequel Frozen 2, where she performed her rendition of “All is Found.” She also appeared on the Disney covers We Love Disney, performing the classic Mary Poppins song “A Spoon of Full Sugar.”
