Descendants: The Rise Of Red Cast Talk New Film, Music Icons, and Timeless Concept
It’s been nearly a decade since Disney Channel introduced us to the world of Descendants, a franchise that follows the children of iconic fairytale heroes and villains. The first trilogy of films centered around the Villain Kids or VKs of Maleficent, Cruella de Vil, Jafar, and the Evil Queen, as well as children of Cinderella, Mulan, Belle, Aurora, Captain Hook, the Fairy Godmother, Ursula, and more. It turned Dove Cameron, Sofia Carson, Booboo Stewart, and the late Cameron Boyce into super stars and kicked off a magical and musical adventure beloved by all with sequels, prequels, animated spin-offs, and television specials. Now we’re returning to the world of Auradon Prep with a fourth film and a new story in Descendants: The Rise of Red.
In Descendants: The Rise of Red, Kylie Cantrall stars as Red, the daughter of Alice In Wonderland’s Queen of Hearts, and Malia Baker as Chloe Charming, the daughter of Brandy and Paolo Montalban’s Cinderella and Prince Charming from the 1997 film. When Headmaster Uma (China Anne McClain) sends an invite to Princess Red to attend Auradon Prep, the Queen of Hearts, played by Rita Ora, uses this as an opportunity to seek revenge. Together Red and Chloe team up to time travel to the past to undo events that led the Queen of Hearts down her treacherous path. Pop Culture Planet’s Kristen Maldonado spoke with members of the new cast about leading the franchise, working with music icons, and other iconic Disney franchises.
This film is a huge turning point for actresses Malia Baker and Kylie Cantrall as it marks the first time they’re leading a film. “We were divas on set all the time. It really got to our heads,” joked Baker. “It was so much fun being able to — I don’t know, how do I say this without sounding insane? — be the faces of this film. It’s truly such a big moment, I feel like. I know I'm excited about it because it's not really happened yet before so this is a milestone.”
“You're right, it is my first leading role in a film. It's definitely a huge milestone for me. It's weird because it totally feels like the beginning in a lot of ways, but also we've both been doing this for so long,” Cantrall told me. “It feels like everything was prepping us for this moment.”
The duo were shocked to learn it’s been almost ten years since the first film debuted. “That's amazing and so telling of the following and the fandom of this franchise. It's so special,” said Cantrall. “The concept is so brilliant and so timeless.”
Each Descendants film allows the actors to tackle a bit of everything — action, adventure, musical elements, and, this time around, time travel. “It was kind of tricky thinking of the little continuity aspects. Even like, a little Easter egg, my belt on my wardrobe changes color when we go back in time,” shared Cantrall, with Baker adding: “We have a couple of things that change when you we go back and then, once we go back forward again in time, it changes back to its original state.”
This new film introduces us to a ton of new characters including Ruby Rose Turner as Bridget, a young Queen of Hearts, Morgan Dudley as young Ella, and Dara Reneé as Uliana, Ursula’s baby sister and the aunt to Uma. “I love The Little Mermaid. I love Ursula. I definitely did my research. I looked at the first Little Mermaid, the live action. We love representation. Shout out to Princess Ariel, the queen Miss [Halle] Bailey. We absolutely love the Broadway version and so many different things,” said Reneé about playing her first villainous character after roles in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series and Disney’s Magic Bake-Off. “I even went back to the original concept how she was based off an iconic drag queen so it was very fun to play a dark character.”
Meanwhile Turner and Dudley called it “big shoes to fill” when it came to portraying both Disney and music icons “It's really, really big shoes to fill, but also, at the same time, I feel like we had a lot of room to play just because both of our characters grow up so different than where they start. We totally got to find our own within it, but I definitely look up to Brandy so huge. I watched the Rogers and Hammerstein Cinderella when I was a little girl,” shared Dudley. “I loved watching them and how they carry themselves on set and being like, ‘Oh wow, like, you can tell they are at the icon status. They're at the legend status.’”
Turner agreed. “For sure. Their aura entered the room like 10 minutes before they did. Rita Ora is such an icon. I'm so obsessed with her. I've been saying when I grow up I want to be Rita Ora. I'm just so excited that I was able to like share a character with her.”
Get ready to paint the town red when Descendants: The Rise of Red debuts July 12 on Disney+ and August 9 on Disney Channel.
