Kelly Marie Tran, perhaps best known as Star Wars’s Rose Tico, is taking on another huge role with Disney.
Tran will replace Cassie Steele as the voice of Raya in the upcoming Disney animated movie Raya and the Last Dragon.
The film is set in the fictional land of Kumandra, where dragons are rare but revered. Main character Raya embarks on a quest to find the last dragon and save her homeland. The film is Southeast Asian inspired, and Tran is the first Southeast Asian actress to take a starring role in a Disney animated movie.
On Raya, Tran said: ‘She is someone who is technically a princess, but I think that what’s really cool about this project, about this character specifically, is that everyone’s trying to flip the narrative on what it means to be a princess. Raya is totally a warrior. When she was a kid, she was excited to get her sword. And she grows up to be a really badass, gritty warrior and can really take care of herself’.
The film was originally set to be released this November 25th, however the coronavirus pandemic – which hugely disrupted the entertainment landscape – meant the film was pushed back to March 12th, 2021. Pixar’s Soul is now releasing on the November date.
Until then, you can stream both classic and modern Disney animated movies like Moana with a Disney Plus subscription.
The streamer also holds the entire Star Wars saga, with Tran appearing in Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. You can check it all out with a subscription today.
