‘The Little Mermaid’: Melissa McCarthy Ignites Ursula Casting Rumors

Is Melissa McCarthy playing Ursula in the live-action Little Mermaid? The actress cryptically hinted at the rumors during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live Monday night, keeping fans on their toes about the matter.

“What’s that?” McCarthy teased when asked about the remake. “I hadn’t heard about that. It seems like it will be an awfully fun thing to do. Oh, I’d love if Disney gave me a little ringy dingy. We’ll see.”

“If it did happen,” she continued after an exaggerated wink, “it would be very wonderful, Disney.”

She even said that she’s a huge fan of the 1989 original. “I feel like everyone has watched that,” she said. “I was a nanny when it first came out and one of the little girls I was watching, we watched it every single night for about a year and a half. No, I’m not kidding at all. I’m like, I know it. I know it to my core and I weirdly still love it.”

As excited as McCarthy appears about the potential role, two people who aren’t quite as enthusiastic about it are her and husband Ben Falcone’s daughters, 12-year-old Vivian and 9-year-old Georgette. Amid the casting speculation, “they were like, ‘really?’” McCarthy joked to Kimmel. “There’s also a little whisper of like, ‘Oh God. Don’t embarrass me.’”

McCarthy isn’t the only rumored addition to The Little Mermaid; earlier this month, fans wondered if Prince Harry would be cast as Prince Eric when Collider reported he was in talks for the role. Styles, previously of One Direction, made his film debut in Dunkirk in 2017.

Although the movie is not yet in production, it made waves earlier this month when Disney announced that R&B singer Halle Bailey, of the Beyoncé-approved sister duo Chloe x Halle, had been cast to star as Ariel. Disney’s cable network Freeform applauded Bailey, who some trolls argued shouldn’t have been cast.

The network defended Bailey in an open letter, writing, “Ariel…is a mermaid. But for the sake of argument, let’s say that Ariel, too, is Danish. Danish mermaids can be black because Danish *people* can be black. Ariel can sneak up to the surface at any time with her pals Scuttle and the *ahem* Jamaican crab Sebastian (sorry, Flounder!) and keep that bronze base tight. Black Danish people, and this mer-folk, can also *genetically* (!!!) have red hair.”

“After all this is said and done, and you still cannot get past the idea that choosing the incredible, sensational, highly-talented gorgeous Halle Bailey is anything other than the INSPIRED casting that it is because she ‘doesn’t look like the cartoon one’,” the post continued, “Oh boy, do I have some news for you…about you.”