The Little Mermaid: Everything you need to know including the cast, trailer and release date

16 September 2022, 17:15

Watch Disney’s live-action Little Mermaid teaser trailer

By Rachel Michaella Finn

The Little Mermaid will be hitting our screens in 2023. Here's everything you need to know about the live-action movie.

Loading audio...

Disney is bringing one of your childhood classics back to life with a live-action remake of The Little Mermaid.

The upcoming film will be a new adaptation of the 1989 animated classic, featuring some of the original songs we know and love, as well as a few new ones too.

The first teaser trailer of the film has just been released, giving fans their first preview of Halle Bailey as Ariel herself and what to expect from the film. Now we’re counting down the days until we can finally see it on the big screen.

Here’s everything we know so far about the film, including the release date, cast, soundtrack, storyline and more.

The Little Mermaid live-action film. Picture: Disney

What is the release date of The Little Mermaid?

There’s still a bit of time to wait as The Little Mermaid isn’t due for release until May 26th, 2023.

Who is in the cast of The Little Mermaid?

The complete cast hasn’t been confirmed yet, but we do know who will be playing the film’s leading roles.

Halle Bailey stars in the lead role of Ariel, a mermaid princess who has a fascination with the human world. The 22-year-old old is best known as part of musical duo Chloe x Halle, having been nominated for five Grammys for her work as a singer. The Little Mermaid will mark her first major film role.

She’s joined by Jonah Hauer-King, who plays her love interest Eric, the prince she falls in love with once she arrives in the human world. Jonah previously appeared in the war drama series World on Fire and played Laurie in the 2017 TV adaptation of Little Women.

Added to that, Melissa McCarthy plays the role of villain Ursula and Javier Bardem joins the cast as Ariel’s father King Triton.

There are also new characters for the 2023 film, including Queen Selina, who will be played by Noma Dumezwemi, best known for playing Hermione in the West End run of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

Bridgerton's Simone Ashley will also have a role in the film, with rumours flying that she could be playing one of Ariel's sisters.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Halle Bailey (@hallebailey)

What’s the plot of The Little Mermaid?

As far as we know, the live-action remake is likely to follow the same basic plot as the 1989 animated version, in which Ariel falls in love with a human prince, Eric, so makes a deal with sea witch Ursula to become a human and live with him on land.

However, the deal isn’t without a catch. In return, Ariel has to give up her voice and has only three days to get Eric to fall in love with her and seal it with a kiss. Otherwise, she’ll have to return to the sea to be Ursula’s prisoner forever. The Disney films are, in turn, loosely based on the 1837 Hans Christian Andersen fairytale of the same name.

Is there a trailer?

There isn’t a full trailer for the film yet, but a teaser trailer has been released, in which you get to see Halle Bailey in the role of Ariel for the first time. You can watch it by hitting play on the video at the top of this article.

Halle Bailey At D23 2022 — Halle Bailey at D23 2022. Picture: Getty

What songs will be on the soundtrack?

Composer Alan Menken, who scored and co-wrote songs for the original film, is returning for the film’s soundtrack, working alongside producer Lin-Manuel Miranda on the film’s soundtrack. In a recent interview, Lin-Manuel confirmed that we can expect the soundtrack to feature classic songs from the original film, such as ‘Under The Sea’ and ‘Part of Your World’, as well as a few brand new songs.

Speaking to Variety, he said: "We wrote three or four original tunes, replacing none of the ones you like. All of those are in.”

He added: "There's no bigger Little Mermaid fan than me. But we found a couple of opportunities for some other music that I can't wait to see. I'm in the dark as anyone else, honestly."