Following the disastrous reveal of Will Smith’s Genie, new Aladdin fan art swaps in the late Robin Williams as Disney’s live-action wish-granter. As a company, Disney will probably always be best known for its rich legacy of classic animated films. Some of the most beloved of those efforts came out of the 1990s, including The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and of course, 1992’s Aladdin. In recent years, Disney has been trying to make its old properties new again by creating live-action remakes of its animated hits.
Several such remakes have proven massively successful for Disney, so it’s not hard to see why they’re keeping down this path, whether longtime fans want to see their favorite classic stories retold or not. 2017’s Beauty and the Beast raked in over $1 billion worldwide, while 2016’s The Jungle Book remake itself earned just shy of the billion dollar mark. 2019 will see a veritable onslaught of follow-ups, with no less than four Disney remakes headed the way of fans before the year wraps up.
Related: Aladdin: Why Will Smith’s Blue Genie Looks So Bad In Live-Action
Hitting theaters in May, right in the thick of the summer blockbuster season, is Disney’s live-action remake of Aladdin. Reaction to the initial teaser trailer and marketing was mixed, but a recently released TV spot sent the fan backlash into overdrive. Aladdin’s live-action genie (played by Smith) was first revealed in all his blue glory during the spot, and well, the reaction has mostly been a mix of laughter and disappointment. This seemingly inspired artist BossLogic to create a piece of fan art that offers a look at what Williams would look like as a live-action Genie. Check it out below.
Comedy legend Robin Williams of course voiced the Genie in Disney’s original animated Aladdin, just one of his many iconic roles to come out of the 1990s. Sadly, Williams died by suicide in 2014, to the shock and dismay of millions of fans. Were he still around, one wonders if Disney would’ve found a spot for him in this new Aladdin, whether it be playing the Genie or not. Still, the above art provides an interesting glimpse at what him doing so might look like.
As bad as most think Smith’s live-action blue Genie looks, fans should perhaps take a step back before continuing to harp on it. It’s quite possible that the CGI appearance of Smith’s Genie isn’t completely finished, and the effects in the final Aladdin film will end up looking better. For now though, one assumes the endless memes about Smith will continue unabated, despite the fact that he tends to turn in good performances more often than not.
More: All The Live-Action Disney Remakes In Development
Key Release Dates
Aladdin (1992)
Release Date:2019-05-24