In a controversial move, Billy Magnussen has been cast as a new character in the live-action Aladdin reboot. Photo / Getty
In a controversial move, Billy Magnussen has been cast as a new character in the live-action Aladdin reboot. Photo / Getty
Guy Ritchie's Aladdin has barely begun production, but the live-action remake of the 1992 Disney classic continues to prove controversial.
The film, which is set in the Middle East, was landed with whitewashing claims in July after casting British-Indian actress Naomi Scott to play Princess Jasmine. But now a newrole has been created that didn't exist in the original animated film, and a white American actor has been tasked with playing it.
No white characters have existed in previous versions of the Aladdin story. Photo / supplied
Billy Magnussen, who played a prince in Disney ensemble musical Into the Woods, has been cast as Prince Anders, thought to be a love rival to Aladdin, a street rat, in his pursual of Princess Jasmine. Nasim Pedrad, a former cast member of Saturday Night Live, has also joined the cast list as another new character, Mara, handmaiden and friend to Jasmine.
No white characters have ever existed in the Aladdin narrative, which has a historic Arabian setting, and is based on the story Aladdin and the Magic Lamp from One Thousand and One Nights, a collection of Middle Eastern folk stories.
It isn't the first time Magnussen has been involved in a cinematic race row. He drew controversy to last year's The Birth of the Dragon, which told the supposedly true story of how a young Bruce Lee challenged kung fu master Wong Jack Man in the Sixties. Magnussen played Steve McKee, a fictional go-between who set up the fight.
Critics of the new addition to the Aladdin cast shared their confusion about Prince Anders on Twitter.
I'm glad they added a white man though. As a white person, I was just so confused by the idea POC have stories I'm not involved in. #Aladdin
— vee 👻 behrad tarazi thirst squad™️ (@dametokillfor) September 6, 2017
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