For Black Disney fans this is going to be an amazing spring. With Halle Bailey’s The Little Mermaid hitting theaters on May 26, and Yara Shahidi’s Tinkerbell debuting in Peter Pan & Wendy on Disney+ on April 28, it truly will be a magical time. The Grown-ish co-stars are supporting one another through this special moment, with Shahidi telling The Hollywood Reporter that Bailey’s casting as Ariel “made so much sense.”
“So excited to watch Halle onscreen—if there’s anybody that is a princess just in real life, in the world, it’s Halle,” the Black-ish star said.
On Sunday, the first full trailer for The Little Mermaid premiered and it was beautiful. The live-action remake recreates many of the animated film’s most iconic scenes, with Halle brilliantly showcased as the perfect Ariel. She captures the character’s individuality and defiant spirit, while also adding her own soulful vocals to Ariel’s signature song, “Part of Your World.”
The first look at Shahidi’s famous fairy was also recently revealed in the trailer for Peter Pan & Wendy, and while we didn’t get a lot of Tink footage, she’s an extremely popular character who plays a major role in Disney’s overall story of magic because she’s the fairy responsible for all that pixie dust. As such, the impact of these characters being Black isn’t lost on Yara.
“What’s been beautiful is seeing the response to both of our characters and seeing how many people feel included in this fairy tale, while also maintaining the magic that we love in the first place,” she said.
If the craziness of this ridiculous world we live in becomes overwhelming and you need a positive pick me up, I encourage you to watch the TikTok videos of Black kids reacting to seeing Bailey’s Ariel for the first time. It is the sweetest thing you will ever see. Sometimes it feels like people are so busy debating the issue of inclusivity, they forget that there are actual kids who are excited to see themselves in their favorite stories.
“I think oftentimes people think of diversity and inclusion as threatening or jeopardizing the quality of the story, instead of seeing how beautifully they can be interwoven together to create something that impacts even more people, that lets even more people into stories that we love,” Shahidi said.
Halle Bailey stars as Ariel in The Little Mermaid, which splashes into theaters May 26. Yara Shahidi is Tinkerbell in Peter Pan & Wendy, premiering April 28 on Disney+.