Even though Melissa McCarthy is in talks to portray the evil sea witch Ursula in Disney’s live-action The Little Mermaid, Lizzo is still vying for the role.

The news regarding McCarthy was announced Friday, and as a response, Lizzo tweeted out the news with a sad face emoji.

She also retweeted a video of her in costume as Ursula singing “Poor Unfortunate Souls.”

Ever since the news was released to the public, people have taken to their Twitter pages to decry the casting decision. If you go by the internet’s opinion, Lizzo is the only one fans can see as the character.

Some people are going as far as to say Ursula is “a Black woman.” Despite Ursula being purple, one of the colors usually given to PoC-coded characters, the original Ursula was based on white drag queen Divine and voiced by white actress Pat Carroll. What’s also true is that Ursula was portrayed in Once Upon a Time by Merrin Dungey, with a younger version of the character played by Tiffany Boone. In Disney Channel’s Descendants film series, Ursula’s daughter, Uma, is portrayed by Black Lightning star China Anne McClain. Regardless, Lizzo is still the people’s Ursula, so the bar for McCarthy to cross is high. Is it too high? Time will tell.

Lizzo will make her film debut with Constance Wu, Julia Stiles, Keke Palmer, Jennifer Lopez, Lili Reinhart and Cardi B in the stripper revenge pic, Hustlers. 

 

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Photo credit: Lizzo/Twitter

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