Earlier this week, we got our first look at Will Smith as the Genie in Disney’s Aladdin reboot. The image provoked a lot of questions, including why does he look like Sinbad in Shazaam (which is TOTALLY REAL), and why isn’t he blue? Well, fear not, Disney purists: he will be. “First look at the Genie, Princess Jasmine, and #Aladdin! Check Me Rockin’ the Top Knot Ponytail Vibes (and yes, I’m gonna be BLUE! :-) This is how the Genie is in Human / Disguise Form. My character will be CGI most of the movie),” he wrote on Instagram.
Director Guy Ritchie expanded on what his Genie will look and be like in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “There’s a particular type of physicality that I grew up with that I was keen on, that 1970s bodybuilder look — not inflicted by steroids but by lifting vast amounts of weight and eating vast amounts of food — so I just want a genie with abs, a genie that looks like he can move stuff,” he said. “I did want a traditional demi-God, someone who looked like a big, strong dad. I didn’t want a genie that looks like all he can do is eat either, that is the way you end up going. I wanted a muscular 1970s dad.”
In other words, this Genie f*cks.
Ritchie also said that the songs from the 1992 animated film, including the Oscar-winning “A Whole New World” and Oscar-nominated “Be Our Guest,” are part of the DNA of the reboot, because “we didn’t really want to stray from the original stuff, just an embellishment with a couple of new tracks. The new tunes are marginally shifted now with the fact that we’re 26 years later, the world moves on so there is a shift, which is just an unavoidable aspect time.”
A whole new world, indeed. Aladdin opens on May 24, 2019.
(Via Entertainment Weekly)
