Could you picture Latrice Royale as Ursula?
Rumour has it that comedian Melissa McCarthy will be playing the purple sea witch in Disney’s live-action remake of The Little Mermaid, but one RuPaul’s Drag Race fan favourite wants in on this gig.
When asked by AV Club who her favourite fictional villain of all time is, Latrice replied, “Ursula! Oh, I should be her right now, man,” before adding, “The Poor Unfortunate Souls moment is just everything for me.”
So what would Latrice bring to the role? “Boooody language, baby! I’m brassy and bold and everything that she should be. Oh well. I wish Melissa McCarthy the best. She’ll be cute. It’ll be cute.”
The Drag Race legend is known for her incredible catchphrases and quick humour, but what about life as a Disney star? It could happen. She’s got the voice, the look AND the humour, so it seems only natural to let Latrice serve us fierce Ursula realness.
Related: Harry Styles in talks to play Prince Eric in live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid
As it stands, it looks likely that Melissa McCarthy will be playing the role of Ursula, but plenty of other pop culture icons have put themselves forward, including singer-songwriter Lizzo, Drag Race star Ginger Minj, and musical legend Harvey Fierstein.
Having a drag queen play Ursula would be fitting – the story goes that the original animated Ursula was inspired by American drag icon Divine, purveyor of filth and star of John Waters films like Pink Flamingo and Hairspray.
While this is all speculation for now, we do have confirmation that Halle Bailey – of the R&B duo Chloe x Halle, who opened for Beyonce on her Formation World Tour – will be playing Ariel in the new live-action adaptation.
Production on The Little Mermaid is expected to begin in early 2020, so don’t expect this one to hit your local cinema screen for a while.