Kelly Marie Tran will voice the main character in Disney's upcoming animated movie Raya and the Last Dragon.
The Star Wars: The Last Jedi star has been drafted in to replace Canadian actress Cassie Steele as Raya and she is making history by becoming the first Southeast Asian actress to lead a Disney animated movie.
According to Entertainment Weekly, as an evil force threatens the fictional kingdom of Kumandra, Raya and her trusty seed Tuk Tuk must leave their Heart Lands home and track down the last dragon to help stop the villainous Druun.
The movie will be Walt Disney Animation Studios' first film to inspired by Southeast Asia, and the Vietnamese-American actress revealed to EW that Disney officials employed teams to research the culture to ensure the film accurately reflected its influences.
"I felt so seen, and it was such a blissful feeling. I don't know if I can even explain it, but it was this surprise. I've worked on some things before which obviously weren't as culturally specific as this, and I don't think that I knew that I needed that," she said.
The 31-year-old revealed that Raya will help redefine what it means to be a Disney princess.
"I think that what's really cool about this project, about this character specifically, is that everyone's trying to flip the narrative on what it means to be a princess," she explained. "Raya is totally a warrior. When she was a kid, she was excited to get her sword. And she grows up to be a really badass, gritty warrior and can really take care of herself."
Awkwafina, whose casting was announced last year, will voice the character of Sisu, a dragon in human form.
There has also been a reshuffle behind-the-scenes too - Don Hall and Carlos Lopez Estrada are now the movie's directors, with original filmmaker Paul Briggs now serving as a co-director alongside John Ripa. Playwright Qui Nguyen is also now helping Crazy Rich Asians scribe Adele Lim complete the script.
The animated project is being developed from remote locations during the Covid-19 pandemic and is scheduled to premiere in March 2021.
