Jodi Benson is Working on a New Project as Ariel

Could Jodi Benson be back as the voice of The Little Mermaid‘s Ariel? A recent social media post hints at the actor’s return to her famous Disney Renaissance role.

Chip and Company caught wind that Benson’s official Instagram account had posted a story teasing that she was in a recording session at Company3.

Evidence of Jodi Benson recording something related to Princess Ariel was hinted at in the story itself, which was captured, and DrewDisneyDude uploaded a still image of the evidence via X:

Jodi Benson just posted that she is “working on a new surprise project” recording for Ariel. 👀 pic.twitter.com/DL7b2NMehq

— Drew Smith (@DrewDisneyDude) February 8, 2024

Apparently, Benson was in the Company3 recording studio on February 6 at 1:30 PM PT. The text the famed voice actor included with the Instagram story is as follows:

“working on a new surprise project. always thankful to be in the studio with my incredible engineer of 19 yrs. Shawn Coleman at @company_3“

A second photo appears in the story, which contains a shot of what looks like a script with Ariel’s name clearly listed at the top. If the X post is taken down, we’ve dropped it below.

Jodi Benson never really left the role of Ariel. She has been voicing the leg-loving aquatic princess multiple times since The Little Mermaid hit theatres in 1989. The most recent instance was in the Disney100 short Once Upon a Studio. 

Sadly, Benson didn’t get a prominent role in 2023’s live-action version of The Little Mermaid. Then again, the less we talk about the movie, the better. 

She also voices Barbie in the Toy Story films. I hope the Margot Robbie-starring sequel based on Mattel’s famous doll will include her because I cannot separate her peppy voice from the toy now.

I checked IMDB, but no new Ariel-related project is listed on Jodi Benson’s page. What do you think this could be? Let us know!

[Source: Chip and Company]