Full Trailer of Aladdin Released Featuring Egyptian Actor Mena Massoud

Walt Disney released Tuesday morning a full-length trailer for its live-action remake of Aladdin, featuring Egyptian actor Mena Massoud and American actor Will Smith.

Aladdin is a live-action adaptation of Disney’s 1992 animated film of the same name, which is also based on the Arabic folktale of the same name from One Thousand and One Nights. It is scheduled to be released in cinemas on May 24, 2019.

In March 2017,  a worldwide casting call for the lead roles of Aladdin and Princess Jasmine commenced.

Over 2,000 actors and actresses auditioned for the roles of Aladdin and Jasmine, yet finding a male lead of Middle-Eastern descent in his 20s was difficult.

After extended search, Massoud beat out other actors Riz Ahmed and Dev Patel to take on the role of Aladdin, alongside Will Smith as Genie and Naomi Scott as Princess Jasmine.

Massoud was born in Cairo, Egypt to Egyptian Coptic Christian parents before immigrating to Canada when he was three-years-old.

He previously worked in television, playing roles like Jared Malik in the 2015 series Open Heart and Tarek Kassar in the Amazon series Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan.