Disney Continues Its Live Action Trend

From Maleficent to Cinderella to Pete's Dragon to The Jungle Book (and it's upcoming sequal), to it's upcoming 2017 Beauty & The Beast starring Harry Potter's Emma Watson, Disney is on a role with their live action adaptations of classic movies. The company has just dropped the titles for the next two films they will be tackling. Viewers can look forward to seeing Simba come to life in the Lion King and Mulan save China in the self titled film. Due to Hollywood's lack of diversity and it's tendency to whitewash (especially when it comes to Asian actors), Mulan has been placed under a huge microscope. Last April, fans created a petition that demanded Disney to cast an Asian actress as Mulan. Well Disney has heard the protests (and probably doesn't want even more/worse backlash then what they recieved when white, British actress, Tilda Swinton landed the role of The Ancient One in Marvel's upcoming Doctor Strange film). It appears that the filmmakers do not want a white actress for this role and according to Variety, “a global casting search will soon be underway to find a Chinese actress for the role of Mulan. Mulan is and will always be the lead character in the story, and all primary roles, including the love interest, are Chinese.” Disney has hired “Jurassic World” writers Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa to rework the script and are actively trying to fill the director’s chair with an Asian filmmaker. Lion King on the other hand is set to be directed by The Jungle Book's director Jon Favreau and written by the man behind Catch Me If You Can and The Rush Hour films, Jeff Nathanson. Not much is known about either film except that they both will follow the route of its live action predecessors and will include songs from the animated counterparts. No release date has been set for The Lion King but Mulan is expected to hit theaters early 2018.