‘Aladdin’ Producer Teases Empowering Jasmine Anthem

Aladdin producer Dan Lin says a new song crafted for Jasmine (Naomi Scott), penned by La La Land and The Greatest Showman songwriters Benji Pasek and Justin Paul, is "almost like an anthem" for the empowered princess.

"It's really about her strength, her independence, [how] she really wants to be sultan," Lin told Variety.

"In the first movie we felt like she didn't have enough of a goal, it was really just to meet a guy. And here she wants to do more, she wants to save her world of Agrabah, she wants to play her part in leading her kingdom."

Composed by eight-time Academy Award winner Alan Menken, who served as composer and songwriter on the 1992 animated Aladdin that starred Robin Williams, the new song is "a beautiful piece of music and [Scott] is incredible," Paul said in August when dishing on the new music original to the live-action re-imagining.

Though her Sultan father (Navid Negahban) wishes to marry Jasmine off to Skånland royalty Prince Anders (Billy Magnussen), she discovers a whole new world following an encounter with smitten street rat-slash-pretend prince Aladdin (Mena Massoud).

"There are so many amazing new things about the character in this adaptation — I could literally go on for an hour! Everyone involved in this project weren't afraid to really just rip things down and start again, especially the Princess Jasmine character, because it's so important to get that right," Scott told THR in 2017.

The Power Rangers star added her take on the iconic Disney Princess sees Scott playing a "real person."

"[She] can be strong and have fun, but also get it wrong and be emotional. She's a multidimensional woman, and she doesn't have to just be one thing," she said. "So in this movie, you see her go on such a roller coaster, as opposed to her one goal being to fall in love or get married."

Her turn as the Agrabah princess also explores Jasmine's potential as the next leader of her people — if she and Aladdin are able to thwart the scheming Grand Vizier Jafar (Marwan Kenzari).

"You really get in this adaptation of the movie that her heart is for her people, and her main objective is what's best for her kingdom," Scott said. "And you really get a sense that she has those leadership qualities within her."

Aladdin opens May 24.

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