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Disney’s Cast for Live-Action Aladdin Remake Doesn’t Do Enough For Arabs

posted on: Jul 18, 2017

By Daniel Gil/ Contributing Writer

That empty spot on the magic red carpet has finally been filled. After months of casting calls and over 2,000 auditions later, Disney finally announced on Saturday their choice for the cast of their live-action remake of the beloved 1992 animated film, but it’s not enough for the Arab community.


Massoud is a Canadian-Egyptian actor who has had a few roles on screen, appearing in a number of short films as well as television shows. But Disney’s remake will for sure be his largest to date; it will likely  catapult the young actor to stardom following the film’s release in 2018. Apart from playing Jared Malik in the television show Open Heart, Massoud’s place on screen has certainly flown under the radar and it will be interesting to see how the relative-rookie actor will bode in a remake destined to be a blockbuster.

The Egyptian-Canadian newcomer will play the iconic role alongside Naomi Scott, who will play Princess Jasmine, and Will Smith, who will be the Genie, made legendary by late American actor Robin Williams. Smith’s legacy on both the small and big screens can by no means be denied as the prolific actor will likely serve as a guide to the two rookie cast members on set.

Scott, on the other hand, is more well known than her co-star, Massoud, especially among a young audience. She played the role of the Pink Ranger/ Kimberly Hart in the 2017 live-action Power Rangers movie, which although may not have been the box office hit it was meant to be, was enough to put her on Disney’s radar.

Now with the cast finally chosen, many it seems, are disappointed with the Ritchie’s choice to cast Scott as Aladdin’s romantic co-star. She was raised in London and has Indian and British roots rather than Arab, as her mother, who is from Uganda, is of Gujarati-Indian descent.

Casting Arab actors to play the roles of the main characters was very clearly a significant choice for fans of the movie, and a generation of moviegoers who want cultural authenticity in their movies when so many have been whitewashed. We’re looking at you Prince of Persia: Sands of Time…

This is especially true of Arab actors who seem to have been grouped together with Indian actors who could’ve played Aladdin and Jasmine in a lumping of “brownish looking people.” They might as well just have dove into South and Latin America looking for people to play the main characters.

The cultural grouping together of starkly different societies is the crux of the issue of the casting director’s decision to include India in the movie’s original casting call. The issue also highlights the lack of high-profile Arab and Arab-American actors to choose from.

Casting the part of Aladdin proved to be no easy feat as director Guy Ritchie and the rest of the casting crew struggled for months trying to find someone who both exuded the qualities of character and who had chemistry with Princess Jasmine. This was made much more difficult by the pressure placed on director Guy Ritchie and the rest of the casting crew by the public, as fans feared a typical whitewashed film by Disney.

Once Twitter got ahold of the news following an article by the Hollywood Reporter, the internet did as it does, lashing out and responding with suggestions for who could fill the vacancy.


Disney had a chance to totally make up for the sins of the original film, because let’s not forget how blatantly obvious the whitewashing was in the 1992 animated classic which cast Scott Weinger as Aladdin and Linda Larkin as Princess Jasmine. But, they almost completely blew it. Although the cast is by no means poor and their response to public pressure placed on Guy Ritchie and the casting crew genuinely admirable, it still wasn’t enough of a change in the way Arab actors have been portrayed in Hollywood over the past decades.

But, that’s all taking away from the most important casting decision of this generation. Their cast might just need another one… Disney please make this happen.

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