The success of the live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid starring Halle Bailey has set the stage for a new Disney Junior series.
Disney Branded Television announced Tuesday that Disney Junior’s Ariel is currently in production and will debut on Disney platforms in 2024. The series follows an eight-year-old Ariel going on adventures in her Caribbean-inspired world. According to the official description:
It follows 8-year-old mermaid princess Ariel as she and her friends embark on fun-filled, action-packed underwater adventures throughout their Caribbean-inspired fairytale kingdom of Atlantica and beyond. The series features fan-favorite characters, including King Triton, Ursula, Sebastian and Flounder, as well as exciting new additions like Ariel’s two best friends, mer-children Lucia and Fernie, and lots of other adorable sea creatures.
The series is executive produced by Lynne Southerland and produced by Ezra Edmond. The supervising director is Kuni Tomita Bowen with Chrystin Garland as art director. Norma P. Sepulveda and Keith Wagner serve as story editors. Wild Canary produces in association with Disney Junior.
In a recent interview with Shadow and Act, Bailey described playing Ariel in the live-action film as a “transformative experience.”
“I’ve just had such gratitude to be a part of a project like this with such talented people like [co-star] Jonah [Hauer-King],” she said. “[B]eing a part of this film meant the world to me because not only do I get to take on a role that I’ve known and loved since I was a little girl, which is honestly healing to the inner child within me, but I get to reinvent this version of the Ariel that we all know to show these children, particularly these brown and Black children that they deserve to be in these spaces and they deserve to see themselves on screen.”
