10 Most Insane Things Happening In Movies & TV Right Now (Dec 21st)

4. The New Genie

Despite how much of a homerun Disney's live action movies appear to be even before they're released, the company's decision to hire Guy Ritchie to direct a racially sensitive and appropriately cast remake of Aladdin was always going to be a little bit odd. There's literally nothing in his previous body of work that suggests he's in any way appropriate for the job, but he's a talented film-maker, so there was at least some goodwill for him.

Plus, it's Aladdin, one of the most successful modern Disney animations with a huge fanbase, beloved songs and an incredible vocal performance by Robin Williams. If he could channel even some of that fandom, he'd have a hit on his hands, even without Williams. Also, casting Will Smith to replace Williams probably wasn't the WORST idea ever, as he's played some zany characters in the past and could go cartoonish enough to pull it off without treading too hard on the original version's toes, right?

Hoooooo boy, is that up for debate now... In the wake of EW releasing the first look at Aladdin, there have been rampant accusations of Disney making a poor pantomime version of Aladdin and major criticism at Smith not being blue. It turns out that the genie WILL be blue for most of the film, as Smith qualified that the released images are merely him in human disguise, but that begs the question - why the hell did Disney decide to release THIS version of him when the criticism was so inevitable? Why hand yourself a losing start?!

Thank goodness for Reddit, where someone made him blue and didn't at all create an even more horrifying vision of what might be to come...