Take your first look at Will Smith in the upcoming live-action Aladdin movie.
After Disney announced Will Smith had been cast as the Genie for the upcoming live-action Aladdin film, the biggest question on everyone’s mind was just how Will Smith would look in the role given that the original character was played by Robin Williams and blue.
Today Entertainment Weekly shared the first photos of Will Smith in one of his outfits, and while it does not look exactly like the animated version, the live-action Aladdin director, Guy Ritchie, dropped a few hints. Eventually, we are going to see the Genie shift into a form we are much more familiar with. While the live-action Genie’s blue version is being worked on in post-production, Ritchie described his vision of the genie as being a “muscular 1970s dad.”
“He was big enough to feel like a force — not so muscular that he looked like he was counting his calories, but formidable enough to look like you knew when he was in the room.”
The real important thing about Aladdin’s genie comes down to Will Smith’s acting style and how he plans on stepping into a role that has been made famous by Robin Williams. Williams’ original performance is what most people associate the character with. Williams, Smith said, made the role his own and so he reasoned he had to do the same by bringing a different kind of energy to the movie.
“Whenever you’re doing things that are iconic, it’s always terrifying. The question is always: Where was there meat left on the bone? Robin didn’t leave a lot of meat on the bone with the character.
I started to feel confident that I could deliver something that was an homage to Robin Williams but was musically different. Just the flavor of the character would be different enough and unique enough that it would be in a different lane, versus trying to compete.
I think it’ll stand out as unique even in the Disney world. There hasn’t been a lot of that hip-hop flavor in Disney history.”
Considering Smith’s amazing acting skills, his history in the rap game, and the power of Disney, the upcoming Aladdin reboot looks like it is in great hands. Aladdin hits theaters on May 24th.
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