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At the recent D23 Expo, Disney unveiled a trailer for the live-action The Little Mermaid, featuring Holly Bailey as Ariel. The choice to cast Bailey, a Black actress, was met with a polarized reaction. Disney highlighted her casting as a celebration of diversity, but many fans saw it as a race swap that diverged from the original fairy tale's description and artistic intent.
The trailer's reception was overwhelmingly negative, with approximately 97,000 upvotes against 330,000 downvotes on social media—an indication of widespread disappointment and frustration. Critics pointed out the dissonance between the studio’s marketing narrative and the fan reactions, emphasizing that fans are tired of these updates that seem to strip the characters of their original identities and essence.