Brandy to reprise role of Cinderella 25 years on

Singer made history in 1997 as the first Black actor to star as the iconic Disney princess

Brandy (Getty Images for BET)

Brandy will be slipping into those glass slippers once more, this time for the forthcoming Descendant sequel.

The singer’s reprisal of her role as Cinderella comes 25 years after she first made history as the first Black actor ever to portray the iconic Disney princess. Her original performance was in Walt Disney Television’s 1997 iteration of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s beloved musical Cinderella.

The Pocketwatch, a new story in the Descendant franchise, will see Brandy’s Cinderella journey to the kingdom of Auradon, an unincorporated territory of Wonderland, the magical and mysterious location in Alice in Wonderland.

After Cinderella’s teenage daughter Chloe (Malia Baker) crosses paths with Red (Kylie Cantrall), the teenage daughter of the tyrannical Queen of Hearts (Rita Ora), unexpected chaos in Auradon ensues.

“In order to prevent an impending coup, they must join forces to travel back in time, via a magical pocket watch created by the Mad Hatter’s son, to stop an event that would lead to grave consequences,” the synopsis reads.

Additional cast includes China Anne McClain, Dara Reneé, Ruby Rose Turner, Morgan Dudley, and Joshua Colley, with Descendant’s Melanie Paxson returning as Fairy Godmother.

News of Brandy’s reprisal comes just a few months after she was reunited with former Cinderella co-stars Paola Montalban, Whoopi Goldberg, Victor Garber, Bernadette Peters, Jason Alexander and Veanne Cox on ABC.

Brandy at the ‘Cinderella’ premiere in 1997 (Getty Images)

The reunion special celebrated the 25th anniversary of the historical casting of Brandy and Whitney Houston as the first Black Cinderella and Fairy Godmother, respectively.

While the 1997 movie was a major step in the right direction for representation in Hollywood, the recent casting of Black actor and singer Halle Bailey as Princess Ariel in the 2023 live-action remake of Disney’s Little Mermaid has been met with racist backlash.

However, Bailey’s brushed off the negative reactions and instead shared what she hopes her casting will mean for young viewers, saying: “I want the little girl in me and the little girls just like me who are watching to know that they’re special, and that they should be a princess in every single way.”