Harry Styles Reportedly Turns Down Prince Eric Role & ‘Little Mermaid’ Fans Are Furious

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Harry Styles reportedly declined the opportunity to play the role of Prince Eric in the highly anticipated live action version of Disney’s ‘The Little Mermaid’ and fans took to Twitter to express their disappointment.

Despite the recent hype, Harry Styles, 25, “respectfully declined” the offer to play Prince Eric in Disney’s live action version of The Little Mermaid, according to a source who spoke to E! News on Aug. 13. The source claims the singer is “a fan of the project” but didn’t want to play the role. Although no reason was given for why he turned it down, it didn’t take long for fans of the British talent to take to social media to share their opinions, and many were very upset.

“How dare you?” one fan asked upon finding out that Harry declined the role. “harry isn’t prince eric…” another wrote while also posting a pic of a crying Harry. “Harry Styles really turned down the offer to be Prince Eric… The audacity,” a third tweet read. “i respectfully decline harry’s decline to play prince eric,” another fan wrote. Others posted random memes expressing frustration and sadness.

Earlier in the day, there were rumors that Harry did quite the opposite and instead accepted the role of Prince Eric, but no official confirmation has been made either way. Talk about Harry possibly playing the role opposite actress Halle Bailey, 19, who has been confirmed to play Ariel, first made headlines in the middle of July. There were even reports that he had screen tested for the role and fans immediately expressed excitement.

Since bursting on the scene as one of the members of One Direction, Harry has been primarily known as a singer, but he has dabbled in some acting in the past. His first major acting role came in the role of Alex in the film Dunkirk in 2017.

We reached out to Harry’s rep and Disney for comment but have yet to receive a response.