Harry Styles passed on the part of Prince Eric in 'The Little Mermaid' to take on 'darker' movie roles, filmmaker says

• Harry Styles declined to play Prince Eric in the live-action version of "The Little Mermaid."
• The movie's director told Entertainment Weekly that Styles turned down the role when approached.

Harry Styles turned down the role of Prince Eric in the live-action version of "The Little Mermaid" because he wanted to do "darker" movie roles, the film's director said.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, "The Little Mermaid" director Rob Marshall revealed that he met with Styles to discuss the possibility of casting him for the role, but the "As It Was" singer declined.

"We met with him. He was lovely. What a wonderful guy," Marshall said of Styles in his interview with Entertainment Weekly published on Tuesday.

"But at the end of the day, he really felt like he wanted to go off and do the movies that he ended up doing, which were sort of darker," Marshall added.

Marshall added that "young musical people" like Styles — who are making inroads into the movie industry — often do not want to be viewed as just singers.

"That's why he was really looking to do something not in the musical genre, to really stretch himself," Marshall told Entertainment Weekly. "It was really a fun idea to play with, but in the end, I always think things happen for a reason."

In an interview with The Face in 2019, Styles said that he turned down a role in "The Little Mermaid" because he wanted to "put music out and focus on that for a while," but added that he will "enjoy watching" the film when it comes out.

Styles starred in two movies in 2022 — the psychological thriller "Don't Worry Darling," with Chris Pine and Florence Pugh, and "My Policeman" with David Dawson and Emma Corrin.

Prince Eric will instead be played by Jonah Hauer-King, who played Laurie Lawrence in the 2017 TV adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women," and Lucas in the 2019 family adventure film "A Dog's Way Home."

Singer-songwriter Halle Bailey will be playing the lead role of Ariel.

Marshall said that he was pleased with his final casting. "I'm so happy to have two young, new people in the film," he told Entertainment Weekly.

Representatives for Marshall and Styles did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment sent outside regular business hours.