Little Mermaid director admits Harry Styles was considered for role in movie

The director behind The Little Mermaid has revealed that the Disney remake almost had a surprising love interest – Harry Styles.

Whilst we know the live-action film wasn’t the same as it was, Rob Marshall admitted that he’d met with Styles and even considered casting him as Prince Eric.

Though fans might be disappointed the Watermelon Sugar singer wouldn’t make the final cut, Marshall had a very good reason not to go with the Grammy award-winning artist.

Ironically, there will still be a Grammy nominee in the film thanks to Halle Bailey being cast as the titular mermaid.

Prior to appearing in the Disney musical, the 23-year-old had been nominated an incredible five times alongside her sister, Chloe.

The pair formed their self-entitled RnB act, Chloe x Halle, in 2011 and began posting their music to YouTube shortly after this.

They were later cast in the ABC sitcom Grown-ish, before releasing their debut album in 2018 and receiving their first two nominations the same year.

If that wasn’t impressive enough, Halle then went on to land her first big screen role in The Little Mermaid alongside Melissa McCarthy, Simone Ashley and Javier Bardem.

However, the already incredible cast nearly had another A-Lister, as Harry Styles was nearly cast as Prince Eric in the upcoming film.

Warner Bros.

Director Rob Marshall revealed this in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, saying that they met before Hauer-King was cast as the love interest, Eric.

"We met with him. He was lovely. What a wonderful guy," he told the magazine, adding: "But at the end of the day, he really felt like he wanted to go off and do the movies that he ended up doing, which were sort of darker."

Instead, Styles would partner up with director and former girlfriend Oliva Wilde for the thriller Don’t Worry Darling.

The Sign of the Times singer would also star in the tense romance, My Policeman alongside Emma Corrin and David Dawson.

Disney

Though both films would be a hit, thanks to Styles’ star power, many fans are disappointed that they didn’t get to see him in the classic fairy tale.

However, Marshall insists it was for the best and understands why the musician went with films which have a darker tone.

"For a lot of young musical people like Harry, you're trying to carve your way and you don't wanna be seen as a singer, necessarily," he said, adding: “That's why he was really looking to do something not in the musical genre, to really stretch himself. It was really a fun idea to play with, but in the end, I always think things happen for a reason.”