Live-Action Rapunzel Indian Fan Cast Controversy

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About

Live-Action Rapunzel Indian Fan Cast Controversy, also known as Live-Action Tangled Casting Rumors Controversy, refers to discussions and debates surrounding a prominent fan cast advocating for an Indian actress to play the Disney princess Rapunzel in a possible live-action version of the film. In April 2024, some internet users criticized the idea of American actress Avantika Vandanapu playing a race-swapped Rapunzel, citing the Princess's supposedly Germanic ancestry in the original fairytale. Other users pushed back against such complaints, citing the fact that no live-action Rapunzel film had been announced and that detractors were getting about an entirely theoretical fan-casting opinion.

Background

The fairy tale Rapunzel appeared in a collection of stories by the Brothers Grimm in 1812, drawing inspiration from the French fairy tale Persinette from 1698, which was itself inspired by the 1634 Italian fairy tale Petrosinella. All three stories fall under the Aarne-Thompson type 3 "Maiden in the Tower" classification.

However, the earliest known reference to a female character helping a male lover climb using her hair as a ladder appears in the Persian epic poem Shahnemeh, as a love story between Rudāba and Zāl. The poems are dated between 977 and 1010 CE.^[9]

Discussions about Disney making a live-action remake of the 2010 animated film Tangled first made the rounds in June 2023, with American actress Maitreyi Ramakrishnan saying that her dream role is to play Rapunzel, as seen in a June 9th post on X^[1] by the account @FilmUpdates (seen below, left). The post gathered over 120,000 likes in a year.

On August 4th, 2023, the X account @PopCrave announced that a live-action remake of Tangled was reportedly in the works at Disney, with X^[2] user @ULTRAGLOSS fan casting British actress Charithra Chandran and Avan Jogia and Rapunzel and Flynn Rider, gathering over 254,000 likes in 10 months (seen below, right).

Developments

On March 31st, 2024, TikToker^[3] @star.eyes4you posted a news article discussing the possibility that American actress Avantika Vandanapu and actor Acan Jogia may play Rapunzel and Flynn Rider in a live-action Tangled remake. The TikToker expressed their disappointment in the casting, writing in their caption, "IM SO SAD MY DREAMS ARE JUST DREAMS 😭😭😭 (pls let me audition) Avantika and Milo will absolutely slay anyway." The post gathered over 4 million plays and 300,000 likes in a week (seen below, left).

In early April 2024, TikToker @44.explosive_farts posted a video captioned, "me pretending that the little girl in me isn't so upset by the live action repunzel casting." The post was reposted to X^[4] on April 7th with the caption, "Somebody call the wambulance," gathering over 26,000 likes in two days (repost shown below, right).

On April 4th, 2024, TikToker^[7] @editsfxi posted an edit fan casting Avantika as Rapunzel and Milo Manheim as Flynn Ryder, gathering over 2 million views and 230,000 likes in five days (seen below, left). Also on April 4th, TikToker^[8] @dylansknipe888 criticized the fan cast, gathering over 2 million plays and 400,000 likes in five days (seen below, right).

On April 7th, X^[5] user @heunvrse posted a thread advocating for an Indian person to be cast in a live-action Rapunzel film, gathering over 120,000 likes in two years (seen below, left). On April 8th, X^[6] user @theoceanblooms quoted the aforementioned TikTok, writing, "this is crazy because I just had to google and not only has there been no casting announcement for live action Rapunzel I’m not even totally sure if a live action Rapunzel is in development," and gathering over 75,000 likes in a day (seen below, right).