Why Harry Styles In Disney's 'Little Mermaid' Signals A BIG Change For Prince Eric!

Disney may have found their Prince Eric to Halle Bailey‘s Ariel!

According to a new rumor swimming its way around Hollywood, Harry Styles is in talks to join The Little Mermaid live action remake!

The One Direction star would join Bailey, and — if the other casting rumors are to be believed — Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, Jacob Tremblay as Flounder, and Awkwafina as scatter-brained seagull Scuttle (a gender swap we can only imagine is angering the same people who hate there being a black Ariel).

Honestly we expected Styles to get his movie career going a little faster after doing a fine job in 2017’s emotional war story Dunkirk. We guess he’s just been too busy touring to make it to auditions…

Innerestingly, if Harry does get the gig, the casting decision will seemingly communicate one major change in the role.

The casting of Halle Bailey, one half of the angelic-voiced duo Chloe x Halle, was already a clear signal music will be front and center — not to mention the movie is being directed by Rob Marshall, helmer of Chicago and Into The Woods.

Halle Bailey will play Ariel — Halle Bailey has already been cast in the title role. / (c) Adriana M. Barraza/WENN

But the fact they’re even considering Styles, who is known primarily for his career as an international pop star, means we’ll almost certainly get some brand new songs as well!

See, Prince Eric is one of the few leads in Disney musicals that actually performs ZERO songs in the original.

If you didn’t ever notice that fact, we apologize for blowing your mind just now. But no, there is no “That’s Not What A Fork Is For” banger in the Disney canon.

But this almost assuredly means there will be one now.

While 2015’s Cinderella gave up on the music, the Mouse has been embracing its original catalog the past couple years. And the addition of one or two new tracks have become a big selling point for Disney’s live action remakes of late.

Dan Stevens performed Evermore in 2017’s Beauty and the Beast, this year Naomi Scott‘s Jasmine sang Speechless in Aladdin, and of course Beyoncé gifted the world with Nala’s new track Spirit in The Lion King.