Daveed Diggs is in talks to lend his voice to Disney's live-action remake of The Little Mermaid as the crab Sebastian. Hailing from director Rob Marshall, The Little Mermaid is scheduled to be one of the Mouse House's next reimaginings. This practice has brought Disney plenty of success in recent years, with The Lion King and Aladdin both earning over $1 billion worldwide this year alone. Although no release date has been officially set, the studio is in the process of finalizing the underwater movie.
To kick off the casting process, The Little Mermaid found Melissa McCarthy to play Ursula. But, after finding a known name and face for the villain, they went the opposite route in casting the lead role. Halle Bailey, a singer and relative newcomer to acting through Grown-ish, was announced as the film's Ariel. Since then, Disney has continued to fill out the cast, and now they look to have found their Sebastian.
According to Variety, Daveed Diggs is in talks to join the cast of The Little Mermaid and voice Sebastian. Diggs is best known for his work in Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton, where his fast rapping abilities were put to good use. He's also starred in last year's hit indie movie Blindspotting, had recurring roles on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, The Get Down, and Black-ish, and will soon be one of the leads in the Snowpiercer TV series.
Given the nature of the role, it's expected that this will be a voice-only part for Diggs, and not require him to do any motion or performance capture, unlike prior live-action Disney films. But, his vocal abilities point to why he could be a great Sebastian. The crab is integral to some of The Little Mermaid's most iconic songs, like "Under the Sea" and "Kiss The Girl." Diggs' takes on these songs should be all the more intriguing, as Miranda is working on the music for the movie, so these tunes or some of the new ones could be crafted to utilize Diggs' talents.
Now that the voice of Sebastian has been found, The Little Mermaid has nearly filled all of its main roles. Awkwafina and Jacob Tremblay will voice Scuttle and Flounder respectively, while Javier Bardem will play Ariel's father, King Triton. The most challenging part to fill has been Prince Eric, as Harry Styles passed on the opportunity and has left Disney searching for someone else to play the love interest. Now that Diggs is part of The Little Mermaid's cast though, hopefully it won't be too much longer before additional casting and details are revealed.
Source: Variety