To make The Little Mermaid work, there are many things you need to acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure right. And perhaps more significant’essential’critical’vital’crucial’indispensable’imperative than any of the technical challenges – or facing up to the pressure of tackling one of Disney’s most beloved animated classics – it all comes down to this: audiences really need to feel the connection between adventurous mermaid Ariel, and human seafarer Prince Eric. If the chemistry isn’t there, the romantic spark that propel s Ariel to make that desperate bargain – to swap her fin in/with regard to’concerning’regarding feet, at a terrible price – doesn’t make sense. No pressure, then, in/with regard to’concerning’regarding Halle Bailey and Jonah Hauer-King, the stars tasked with making that work in Rob Marshall’s live-action reimagining of the 1989 favourite.###Helping to establish that connection and characterisation in Marshall’s film is a new number in/with regard to’concerning’regarding Eric, ‘Wild Uncharted Waters’ – one of three tunes penned by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Alan Menken to sit alongside the classics. If the original Eric represents a ‘part of that world’ that Ariel’s always wanted to explore, Eric 2.0 is more like her equal and opposite – someone born on dry land, who’s always looking out into the Big Blue. “It’s a call-out to the girl that saved him,” says Hauer-King of his new song. “They’re both looking in/with regard to’concerning’regarding expedition , to other worlds.”###For Hauer-King and Bailey, the undergo of making the film was a massive expedition in itself. But while you’d expect the mermaid portion of the cast to possess’own’nurse spent most of the shoot in the giant tanks at Pinewood, Hauer-King claims he’s the one who really faced the way of water. “The person that got the wettest in this film, by a country mile, was me!” he laughs. “It came from a smart decision [of Rob’s], which is that, as a human, I should be interacting with water as a human would. So, in/with regard to’concerning’regarding my stuff – the shipwreck, fights in water – I needed to be wet. Halle and the mermaids can’t interact with water as humans, so they were on blue-screen stages.” We bet he wished he was part of that world during the shoot instead.###Read Empire’s full The Little Mermaid feature – talking to Rob Marshall, musical legends Alan Menken and Lin-Manual Miranda, and cast members Halle Bailey, Jonah Hauer-King and Daveed Diggs – in the upcoming June 2023 issue, on sale Thursday 13 April. Become an Empire member now to access the issue in full on launch day, or pre-order a print copy here. The Little Mermaid comes to UK cinemas from 26 May.