Disney’s reboot of the Little Mermaid will star singer Halle Bailey as Ariel, who is one-half of the R&B duo Chloe x Halle.

Variety reports that the 19 year-old was the top choice for director Rob Marshall from the beginning.

“After an extensive search, it was abundantly clear that Halle possesses that rare combination of spirit, heart, youth, innocence, and substance — plus a glorious singing voice — all intrinsic qualities necessary to play this iconic role,” Marshall said in a statement.

Marshall’s credits include 2002’s ‘Chicago‘ and last year’s ‘Mary Poppins Returns’.

Production is due to start in early 2020 and Jacob Tremblay and Awkwafina will also lend their voices in the remake.

It is rumoured that Melissa McCarthy is in talks to play sea witch Ursula.

This will be Bailey’s feature film debut Bailey has been part of the music group Chloe x Halle since 2015 with her sister Chloe. The pair rose to fame posting Beyoncé covers on YouTube and were eventually discovered by the superstar.

Since then they have signed a record deal with Parkwood Entertainment and have opened for Beyoncé on her ‘Lemonade’ tour.

Halle has taken to Twitter to celebrate calling it a “dream come true”.

https://twitter.com/chloexhalle/status/1146509551497170944

Drag Race star Ariel Versace has landed herself in hot water following now deleted comments made on Facebook saying:

“I regretfully say I hope this isn’t true. Not because this actress is black. She’s literally stunning and she and her sister are amazing vocalists.

“But like, you can’t stay true to the character integrity? Like, making the cartoon we grew up with coming to life within the actress?

“This is coming from a natural redhead haha. I’m sure people would be a little angry if they were to cast Anne Hathaway as Tiana from Princess In [sic] The Frog.”

Oh man… this is bad…. https://t.co/Fk0UQYRDG9

— Aja 〽️iyake-〽️ugler Sanchez (@ajaoxum) July 4, 2019

Fellow Drag Race star Aja weighed in on Versace’s comments saying:

“Oh man… this is bad. I usually wouldn’t comment but c’ mon.

“Tiana, the only black Disney princess was a person for 15 mins and a frog for the rest. People trying to ration about Ariel just sound upset about a black person having an opportunity or have a [sic] repressed racism they aren’t aware of. Ariel is a fish. Should we cast a fish?”