Cruella Star Emma Stone Wants Disney to Make an Ursula Movie
Cruella is now available to watch in theatres and on Disney+ Premier Access and follows Emma Stone [...]
Cruella is now available to watch in theatres and on Disney+ Premier Access and follows Emma Stone as Estella, the younger version of 101 Dalmatians' infamous villain, Cruella de Vil. The movie follows Estella's journey from a small-time thief to an aspiring designer hell-bent on taking down London's biggest fashion maven, The Baroness (Emma Thompson). In honor of this Disney villain prequel, Stone and the rest of her castmates were recently asked by Variety if there are any other Disney villains they'd like to see with their own movie. Stone chose Ursula, the villain from The Little Mermaid.
"She's an octopus and the world you would get to live in, like Ursula's parents and what happened there," Stone said. "You've never really seen a non-human Disney villain be explored in that way."
"The parents keep giving her a shirt that only has four arms," Thompson joked. "They really mess her up with that from a very early age, so she's constantly trying to fit two arms into each hole. That would really mess you up, wouldn't it?"
"I gotta know how Ursula came to be," Kirby Howell-Baptiste (Cruella's Anita) said. "Like, why is she so damn mean? But also I know that she's misunderstood." She added, "I think [The Lion King's] Scar has some deep-seated issues, and obviously his brother was clearly the favorite ... He's not wrong on some things."
While there are currently no plans for Ursula to get her own movie like Cruella or Maleficent, the role will soon be played by Melissa McCarthy in the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid that's set to star Halle Bailey as Ariel. The movie is being directed by Rob Marshall (Chicago, Mary Poppins Returns) and will also feature Javier Bardem as King Triton, Jacob Tremblay as Flounder, Awkwafina as Scuttle, and Daveed Diggs as Sebastian.
As for Cruella, Stone recently told The New York Times that losing the character's signature smoking made the role a little more "difficult."
"That is not allowed in 2021," Stone said when asked about Cruella being a non-smoker in the new movie. "We are not allowed to smoke onscreen in a Disney film. It was difficult to not have that cigarette holder… I was so excited to have that green plume of smoke in there, but it was not possible. I don't want to promote smoking, but I'm also not trying to promote skinning puppies."
Are there any Disney villains you'd like to see get their own movie? Tell us in the comments!
Cruella is now playing in theatres and is available to buy on Disney+ Premier Access.