Disney’s Live Action Little Mermaid Has Found Its King Triton

Now that it’s official that Disney is moving full steam ahead on a live action remake of 1989’s The Little Mermaid, the movie that kicked off the Disney Renaissance, casting news has been coming in on the high tide. The latest update is that Javier Bardem is being looked at to play Ariel’s father, the mighty King Triton.

Javier Bardem is reportedly in talks to join The Little Mermaid right now. Should a deal be reached, he would join a cast that includes Halle Bailey as Ariel, Jacob Tremblay as Flounder and Awkwafina as Scuttle. Melissa McCarthy is also being looked at to play the main villain, Ursula, while Harry Styles is now in negotiations to play Prince Eric.

One intriguing piece of information include in The Disinsider’s casting report (which has been confirmed by Deadline) is that The Little Mermaid remake will focus more on Ariel’s relationship with her mother, who didn’t even appear in the original movie. Disney is in the process of casting that role as well, but that begs the question of if King Triton’s role will be just important in this adaptation as it was in the original, or if the inclusion of Ariel’s mother means he’ll have reduced screen time.

Assuming that Javier Bardem does sign on to The Little Mermaid, this will be his second time working on a Disney movie, having previously played Armando Salazar in 2017’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. Bardem also recently appeared in the Darren Aronofsky film mother!, and he’s attached to play Stilgar in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune.