THERE’S been a stooshy online after the casting of a young African-American actress to play The Little Mermaid’s Ariel, known for her flowing red locks in the original Disney version of the tale.

Some people are outraged that the reboot is robbing them of a figure from their childhood imagination, while others are celebrating the casting as an important moment in the long-overdue drive for greater representation in film and TV.

Who’s playing Ariel?

In yet another live-action remake, Disney execs have cast singer and actress Halle Bailey (not to be confused with Bond actress Halle Berry) as the mermaid who brokers a deal with sea-witch Ursula so she can assume human form and bag her royal crush, Eric. The 19-year-old star said the casting was “a dream come true.”

So, what’s the problem?

While the decision was applauded by most, some corners of the internet were awash with indignation at the news, outraged that a FICTIONAL character based on a FICTIONAL mythic fish-woman hybrid could possibly be represented by a woman of African heritage.

It’s not the first time Disney has come under fire for their casting choices when it comes to race after being accused of ‘whitewashing’ characters including Pocahontas and Princess Tiana, their first African-American princess.

In 2017, the House of Mouse was beset by claims that their in-the-works remake of Mulan wouldn’t feature actors of Chinese heritage but Chinese-American actor Liu Yifei had already been cast in the lead role.

The film company came under fire again when an extra in the remake of Aladdin revealed that he had seen “fair-skinned” actors getting their skin darkened with makeup.

Wait, mermaids aren’t real, are they?

Given the furore around the casting, one could be forgiven for thinking that mermaids were in fact a real species who hailed only from European waters.

Some social media users angered by the casting put their skewed logic on full public display attempting to rationalise their rage with cack-handed scientific justifications – yes, really.

These generally followed the lines of living underwater = no access to sunlight = the physical impossibility of Ariel being black.

Others accused Disney of ‘blackwashing’ the remake.

But naysayers take note, some of Africa’s most revered goddesses are mermaids. Yemaya is a Yoruban deity who was also known as the goddess of the ocean and the ruler of motherhood, while Mama Wati is a water spirit worshipped in west, central and southern Africa who is often depicted as a mermaid.

Have other actors been cast in roles of a different race?

They have, and many have been criticised for taking the place of a person of colour but a new adaptation of a classic novel is making short shrift of stale and pale casting decisions.

Skins and Slumdog Millionaire actor Dev Patel will be the first non-white actor to play Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield in a film adaptation out later this year.

The British Asian leading man takes centre stage in The Personal History of David Copperfield alongside actors of different backgrounds including Benedict Wong, Rosalind Eleazar and Nikki Amuka-Bird.

Producers say the cast represent a London in the 19th century that would be more diverse than costume dramas would usually have audiences believe, calling the casting “colour inclusive”.

Who are some of the controversial castings?

Having white actors play people of black and minority ethnic backgrounds is not new.

In Old Hollywood African-American actors were lucky if they got cast as slaves, housemen, butlers or maids while big names like Laurence Olivier played Shakespeare’s Othello, YElizabeth Taylor was Cleopatra and John Wayne took on the role of Genghis Khan in The Conqueror.

In recent years, the casting of Jake Gyllenhaal in the video game adaptation the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Scarlett Johansson in the manga-turned-movie Ghost in the Shell have attracted criticism.

Isn’t there still a long way to go?

Absolutely. In 2018, figures collected by Hollywood watchdogs showed that in a tally of more than 48,000 characters and 1,100 films more than 70 per cent of faces seen on screen are white, with 2.1 per cent being black, 4.8 per cent Asian, 6.2 per cent Hispanic/Latino, 1.7 per cent Middle Eastern, less than one per cent Native American, and 3.9 per cent mixed race.

In the UK, the British Film Institute recognises that only 15 per cent of people performing on stage and screen are from black and ethnic minority backgrounds compared to 84 per cent of people from European descent.