‘Hamilton’ Star Daveed Diggs in Talks to Play Sebastian in Disney’s Live-Action ‘The Little Mermaid’

Daveed Diggs, the Tony-winning Hamilton star, is in final negotiations to join the castlist of Disney’s live-action remake of Little Mermaid. 

Rob Marshall is directing the project, which will be a remake of the 1989 animated classic. Marc Platt, who worked on Disney’s Mary Poppins Returns and executive produced the studio’s Aladdin remake, is producing along with Marshall, John DeLuca, and Lin-Manuel Miranda. For the new film, Alan Menken, the composer for the original Little Mermaid, will update his score and compose a new song with lyrics from Miranda. 

The movie has already cast quite a few characters: Halle Bailey as Ariel, Javier Bardem as King Triton, Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, Awkwafina as Scuttle, and Jacob Tremblay as Flounder. Diggs will be playing Sebastian, the sea crab who is King Triton’s advisor.

Diggs played the parts of Thomas Jefferson and Marquis de Lafayette in the original production of Hamilton and starred in the 2018 film Blindspotting.