’13 Reasons Why’ Star Christian Navarro Slams Disney for Not Casting ‘Two Brown Leads’ in ‘the Little Mermaid’ Remake
Disney finally cast its Prince Eric for The Little Mermaid live-action remake and Christian Navarro isn’t too thrilled with their decision.
The 13 Reasons Why star recently took to social media to share his thoughts on Jonah Hauer-King getting cast to play the male lead in the upcoming film and didn’t hold anything back.
Navarro is not happy with Prince Eric casting
After months of wondering who is going to play Prince Eric in the live action remake of The Little Mermaid, Disney has finally made a decision.
On November 12, Entertainment Weekly confirmed that British actor, Jonah Hauer-King, landed the coveted role, which many highly accredited actors auditioned for.
Although fans are thrill that Disney finally cast its Prince Eric after months of searching, not everyone is happy that Hauer-King is taking on this role.
Shortly after this news was announced, Christian Navarro— who was in talks to play the Disney Prince— took to Instagram and Twitter to slam Disney for choosing “the white guy” despite having many people of color audition for the role.
“Literally @disney saw a who’s who list of actors of color and STILL went with the white guy,” he wrote on his Instagram Story alongside a photo of Hauer-King, before deleted the post.
“So much for diversity. I guess two brown leads would have tanked the movie right? Boring,” he added, referring to Halle Bailey, who landed the role of Ariel back in July.
Navarro then reactivated his Twitter account to finish addressing the latest casting news.
“Just came back to say; after months of seeing every person of color they could think of for the role of Prince Eric, @DisneyStudios somehow still cast a white guy,” he tweeted. “I guess diversity is just a word. And THATS Hollywood.”
“One brown person is enough, two brown leads is unthinkable,” he added.
Navarro hasn’t said more on the Prince Eric casting decision and has since deactivated his Twitter account.
He auditioned for the role
Back in August, after Harry Styles turned down the role of Prince Eric, Navarro took to Twitter to explain why he would be a great pick for the Disney character.
“So I heard Harry Styles passed on Prince Eric,” Navarro tweeted at the time. “Well…I can sing. Black Ariel/Latino Prince…no ones called but Season 3 [of 13 Reasons Why] drops next week and I think it’s one hell of an audition.”
The following month, the 28-year-old actor revealed that he’d auditioned for the role and was looking forward to hearing back from casting directors.
“[Disney] gave my team a call,” he wrote. “They wanted to see what I could do. Tapes sent. Fingers crossed. Let’s make some history.”
Unfortunately, Disney ended up going another route and eventually settled on Hauer-King.
Though many actors get turned down for roles all of the time, Navarro was looking forward to Disney doing something new and fresh with this live-action remake.
Despite those continuing to applaud the company for casting an African American singer/actress as Ariel, the thought of seeing another person of color play her love interest in the film was appealing to people, especially Navarro.
