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Aladdin Remake Won't be Whitewashed
Disney's live-action Aladdin remake will continue Hollywood's current trend of being more open to diversity, because the film's casting call explicitly states that the characters will be Middle Eastern. Check it out below.
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— Dani Fernandez (@msdanifernandez) March 9, 2017
Disney took a lot of heat for casting mostly white actors in a Middle-Eastern setting in their 2010 video game adaptation Prince of Persia. More recently, Lionsgate received heavy criticism for casting mostly white actors in an Egyptian setting in Gods of Egypt, as did Paramount for casting Scarlett Johansen as a formerly Japanese character in Ghost in the Shell.
Aladdin will be free of such critism when it opens in 2018.
An exact release date has not yet been confirmed, although Guy Ritche will direct. He's currently putting the finishing touches on the fantasy epic King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, which opens on May 12. The original Aladdin grossed an incredible $504,050,219 against a budget of $28 million back in 1992, so we can expect the live-action version to also be a big earner.
And while it's wonderful to see Hollywood finally embracing diversity, there's also some much more alarming Aladdin-related news that needs to be shared. A 2015 survey conducted by the Public Policy Polling organisation found that when asked, 41% of Trump supporters wanted to bomb the fictional country Agrabah, where Disney's Aladdin took place. Let that sink in. Over 40% of Trump supports want to bomb a fictional location.
Thankfully movies like this show that the bullies will not win.
