Aladdin Trailer #2: Will Smith’s Genie is Blue After All

Posted by on February 11th, 2019   Filed under: Animation, Fantasy, Remakes

aladdin

When Disney released the first official photos from their upcoming live-action Aladdin film back in December, a lot of fans were confused as to why Will Smith simply seemed to be playing himself with a ponytail as opposed to a blue CG character. Last night, however, Disney debuted a new trailer during the Grammys that introduces Smith’s new look as the Genie and proves that he will actually be blue after all. It is unclear if this was the plan from the beginning or if they decided to pivot based on online criticism (I suspect the former, but you never know). That being said, the jury is still out on whether this is actually an improvement. Aladdin is directed by Guy Ritchie and hits theatres on May 24th; check out the trailer after the jump and let us know what you think.



  • Lisa V Benson

    There’s the Blue! Not a hard fix right? ;)

  • Jake

    Is this something they would have even be able to do if it wasn’t the original plan? Doesn’t seem like this would work logistically. Smith’s performance from this trailer still looks like it is CG/Performance capture

  • Sean

    It does seem like they couldn’t change this midstream, but when you look at the images from the EW article, Will Smith is wearing a specific genie costume, which makes it seem like he was originally going to be live-action. You’d think if it was all mocap he’d be wearing spandex with balls on it or whatever. Very strange.

  • Beat_C

    everything about this seems so off.

  • Matt the Kiwi

    Yep, the actors don’t look integrated into the scenes at all. Is it possible that green screen technology has gone backwards?

  • Jake

    I’m wondering if maybe there is some flashback sequence where we see him as a regular dude before he gets transformed into the Genie, but other than that, ya it’s strange.

  • Genie does take on different human forms during Prince Ali’s parade. The pictures could be from those scenes. I doubt they would include a Genie that is simply a black guy which would make it hard for him to stand out as the being that he is.

  • Jonny Ashley

    “Ok, now look around you startled as if this cave is totally falling apart, trust us it’s gonna look awesome”