Disney’s Aladdin: Genie Explains How Wishes Work in First Official Clip

One of the biggest selling points of Disney’s original animated Aladdin has always been the Genie. The big blue wish-granter helped bring the House of Mouse a ton of money in ticket sales and merchandise, and has remained one of the most iconic characters in the company’s pantheon. Genie has also been at the center of attention for the upcoming live-action remake of Aladdin, but often times for all the wrong reasons. Will Smith‘s take on the character has been a hotly-debated topic on social media since the very first images arrived last year.

For better or for worse, Genie will always be the most important character when it comes to selling audiences on any version of the Aladdin story. It’s no surprise at this point that the first official clip that Disney has released from the live-action Aladdin centers around Smith’s new Genie.

In the clip, which you can watch in the video above, Genie sits with Aladdin to teach him exactly how to grant a wish. As he points out, the “deal is in the details,” meaning that Aladdin needs to be very specific when asking for what he wanted. If it’s too vague, he could end up with something completely different.

No matter who took on the role of Genie in the new movie, they were going to be compared to the iconic performance of Robin Williams, which no one would ever be able to live up to. So for Smith, it was important to make sure his version of the character was as unique as possible.

“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.

“[Williams] infused the character with a timeless version of himself,” he continued. “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.”

Are you looking forward to Disney’s Aladdin? What do you think of Will Smith’s performance so far? Let us know in the comments!

Aladdin hits theaters on May 24th.

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