The first look at Will Smith‘s take on Genie from Disney’s live-action Aladdin arrived online today to some harsh criticism. Among all sorts of problems that people had with the new look for the character, there were a ton of folks who couldn’t get past the fact that its seems the movie completely abandoned the character’s iconic blue tone. It didn’t take long for fans to go in “fix” the mistakes that they noticed.
Thinking of the classic Genie style, popular fan artist BossLogic gave Will Smith’s character some alterations. Rather than completely redesigning the new Genie, BossLogic’s piece simply colored him blue, and it’s not the most flattering look one could imagine.
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“A splash of blue :),” BossLogic joked in his Instagram post.
Jokes aside, Will Smith’s Genie actually will be blue in the movie, despite what he looks like in the new photos. After posting the initial Entertainment Weekly cover to show his fans, Smith further explained the depiction of his character in the comments.
“I’m gonna be BLUE,” Smith confirmed in the replies. “This is how the Genie is in Human/Disguise form. My character will be CGI for most of the movie.”
Blue or not, expect Smith’s Genie to be vastly different than the one voiced by late comedy icon Robin Williams in the original 1992 animated feature. As Smith told Entertainment Weekly, he needed to be a departure from Williams, because there was no possible way to replicate what he had achieved.
“Whenever you’re doing things that are iconic, it’s always terrifying,” Smith said. “The question is always: Where was there meat left on the bone? Robin didn’t leave a lot of meat on the bone with the character.”
“[He] infused the character with a timeless version of himself. I started to feel confident that I could deliver something that was an homage to Robin Williams but was musically different. Just the flavor of the character would be different enough and unique enough that it would be in a different lane, versus trying to compete.”
“I think it’ll stand out as unique even in the Disney world,” Smith added. “There hasn’t been a lot of that hip-hop flavor in Disney history.”
What do you think of Will Smith’s new Genie? Let us know in the comments!
Disney’s Aladdin arrives in theaters on May 24, 2019.
