It’s been quite some time since we learned that Tom Hanks was going to play Gepetto in Disney’s live-action remake of its animated 1940 Pinocchio movie. Now we finally know the identity of the real boy who’s going to play the wooden boy, along with the stars playing Jiminy Cricket, the Blue Fairy, and more.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Joseph Gordon-Levitt will don the hat and spats of noted star-wisher and moral advisor Jiminy Cricket. Emmy- and Grammy-winning British actor Cynthia Erivo will wield the wand of the Blue Fairy. Keegan-Michael Key will play Honest John, the con artist fox who sells Pinocchio to the puppeteer Stromboli, while Lorraine Bracco will voice a new character created for the film, Sofia the Seagull. Finally, The Haunting of Bly Manor’s Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, who also starred in the recently released Disney movie Flora & Ulysses, has gained the role of the habitual liar/puppet.
Interestingly, THR says Key and Bracco are voicing the fox and the seagull, respectively, but that Gordon-Levitt has been cast as the anthropomorphic cricket. I might be reading too much into this, but I don’t think it would be too surprising for Disney to hire an A-list actor to be motion-captured for Jiminy, given how important the character is in the story.
Pinocchio isn’t on Disney’s release calendar yet but it’s set to start production this month.