First photos of ‘Aladdin,’ first look at characters, Guy Ritchie details the live action film

Disney has now released some images from their upcoming movie, directed by Guy Ritchie, which introduces fans to the characters in this new live-action world.

Released by EW, the photos features Mena Massoud as the street-rat-with-a-heart-of-gold Aladdin, Naomi Scott as the beautiful and determined Princess Jasmine, and of course Will Smith in the iconic role of Genie.

Fans also get their first look at Abu, Marwan Kenzari as the powerful sorcerer Jafar, and Nasim Pedrad as Dalia, the “free-spirited best friend and confidante” of the princess.

Check out more of the pictures below.

Disney has found a ton of success with their live-action adaptations, but faced a challenge bringing the Genie to life after the iconic portrayal by Robin Williams.

Ritchie assured fans we will be seeing Genie in his CG form.

“There’s a particular type of physicality that I grew up with that I was keen on, that 1970s body builder look — not inflicted by steroids but by lifting vast amounts of weight and eating vast amounts of food — so I just want a genie with abs, a genie that looks like he can move stuff. I did want a traditional demi-God, someone who looked like a big, strong dad. I didn’t want a genie that looks like all he can do is eat either, that is the way you end up going. I wanted a muscular 1970s dad — he was big enough to feel like a force, not so muscular that he looked like he was counting his calories but formidable enough to look like you knew when he was in the room.”

Ritchie and Will Smith were cautious about Williams’ legacy.

“The great thing about the role of the Genie is that it’s essentially a hyperbole for who that individual is, for the actor, so it’s a wonderful platform and tapestry for an actor to fill his boots on, and Will Smith is an extrovert and you need an extrovert for Genie. So once you find a voice, which takes a while — and it’s funny because one of the things that we noticed because we tested things is that the Robin Williams concern was an issue, and that issue was aberrated almost immediately because the commitment of tone that we went with Will — and Will depicted our interpretation of how the Genie should be, and it’s different from Robin’s. There’s a lot of mimicking that takes place in the original and that’s very successful, but we went on a different path with this one.”