Mena Massoud deletes Twitter following ‘The Little Mermaid’ backlash

Actor Mena Massoud is best known for playing Aladdin in Disney’s live-action adaptation of 1992′s ‘Aladdin’ alongside Naomi Scott and Will Smith.

Over the weekend, Massoud became a target on Twitter after a comment he made on the upcoming ‘The Little Mermaid’ live-action remake drew a ton of backlash from fans, which resulted in him deleting his account completely.

What did Massoud say?

Massoud’s tweet was in response to one made by The Hollywood Handle, a media and news account, that predicted ‘The Little Mermaid’ could pull in around $115 million at the box office in its first weekend. To compare, ‘Aladdin’ accumulated $112 million during its opening weekend.

“Our film was unique in that audiences went to watch it multiple times,” Massoud wrote. “It’s the only way we reached the billion dollar mark with our opening.

“My guess is TLM doesn’t cross the billion mark but will undoubtedly get a sequel.”

The backlash

Many users were quick to defend the film and attack Massoud, interpreting his comment as shade toward a film that hasn’t been released yet. Some suggested that Massoud may have taken a dig at the film because an ‘Aladdin’ sequel was canceled.

Others pointed out that Massoud might have been upset because he’s been struggling to get roles since ‘Aladdin’.

In 2019, Massoud went on record to say that he hasn’t landed a single audition since ‘Aladdin’ released.

“It’s not all dandelions and roses,” he said at the time.

One reason for the intense backlash is because ‘The Little Mermaid’ has been placed under intense scrutiny since Halle Bailey, a woman of color, was cast as Ariel.

The original tweet can no longer be found as Massoud has since deleted his entire Twitter account. Any attempts to view his page are met with a ‘Something Went Wrong. Try again,” error message.