As often as we can, we aspire to be your daily good-news bearer. Disney's "Aladdin" is about to get its very own live-action remake. Feeling butterflies in your stomach yet?
A few months ago, the team behind the movie made an open casting call for their lead actors to play the male and female protagonists. There was one primary condition: they must look Middle Eastern (or be ones for all that matters.)
Last Sunday, news spread that director Guy Ritchie intends on casting actor Tom Hardy as the villainous "Jafar." There's one problem though, Hardy is white.
As much as we love the English actor, this decision sounds a tad unfair. This whole Ridley Scott whitewashing Exodus: Gods and Kings situation will not happen again.
Why in the name of Agrabah are they looking for a white man to play "Jafar" when the evil sorcerer is obviously of Middle Eastern or South Asian descent?
What's next? Change Jasmine's name to Jessie and have her dye her hair blonde?
This is absolutely unacceptable, and we just won't allow it. The Internet, rightfully so, lost it and took to Twitter to express their fury.
Some of the angered fans of the classic tale even suggested a few Middle Eastern-looking actors to choose from instead of Hardy.
But most of them chose Riz Ahmed of HBO’s The Night Of and Girls, as well as Disney’s latest Rogue One.
You might not see it at first, but look at him (below.) LOOK AT HIS JAFAR-Y EYES!
Thankfully, one of Hardy’s representatives told HuffPost UK that there is no truth to any of these claims whatsoever.
Now that we can finally keep our calm, allow us to aboard the Riz Ahmed-Jafar ship. You're more than welcome to join unless you prefer Aladdin's flying carpet.