Disney's Little Mermaid Prequel: First Look At Ursula's Origins

Disney's first official look at The Little Mermaid's 2026 prequel spinoff shows a glimpse at the origins of a beloved villain. If Disney protagonists are beloved by millions, Disney villains don't fall far behind. Iconic antagonists like Sleeping Beauty's Maleficent and Beauty & the Beast's Gaston are usually more memorable than Aurora and Prince Adam themselves.

Disney’s The Little Mermaid is widely credited with launching the Disney Renaissance through its Broadway-influenced songs and enduring characters like Ariel, Ursula, and Sebastian. After two direct-to-video animated continuations, one animated show, and years of appearances in crossover games, theme park attractions, and stage adaptations, 2023's live-action The Little Mermaid took the franchise to new heights.

Three years after Ariel and Ursula's live-action debut, Disney's The Little Mermaid franchise shows no signs of stopping, with more stories set in the depths of the sea coming soon this year.

Disney Villains: Ursula Adds A New Antagonist Sequel To Disney's Princesses Lore

Disney Villains: Ursula #1; Written by Sherri L. Smith; Art by Gabriele Bagnoli

Dynamite Entertainment's Disney Villains: Ursula #1 reunites writer Sherri L. Smith and artist Gabriele Bagnoli for a prequel that expands Ursula’s dominion beneath the sea. Set years before her fateful encounter with Ariel, the comic presents Ursula as one of the ruling Seven Sea Witches. When one of her royal sisters is stripped of her powers, Ursula launches a revenge plan. Fans will get to meet a very different Ursula on the outside, but a familiar one on the inside.

Disney Villains: Ursula #1 continues Dynamite Entertainment’s broader Disney Villains miniseries line, which has previously spotlighted Scar, Maleficent, Hades, and Cruella De Vil in dedicated arcs that show them in a different light. Ursula's debut issue is reinforced by high-profile variant covers from Mirka Andolfo, Jae Lee, Robert Quinn, Shatoki Shiki, and Francesca Carita. Like previous Disney Villains comics, Ursula is expected to run for five issues.

Ursula Has Always Deserved Her Own Spinoff

Ursula Earned Herself The Cruella Treatment More Than 30 Years Ago

Disney villains have long proven that antagonists can be as compelling as their heroic counterparts, if not more. Characters driven by ambition, resentment, vanity, or a plainly evil heart often possess clearer motivations and stronger personalities than the protagonists they oppose. Disney started exploring villains in depth in their own story with Maleficent and Cruella, which gave two of Disney's most vicious antagonists their own origin stories. Along with the highly popular The Descendants, Maleficent and Cruella's success shows the huge potential of villain-driven stories.

Like Cruella, The Little Mermaid's Ursula is an unapologetically evil Disney villain, with a cunning and darkly comedic personality that allows her to steal the show every time she's on screen. Ursula's confidence and theatrical flair make her mesmerizing to watch, even as her schemes are ruthlessly self-serving. A deep look at her backstory, exile, and rise to power in the ocean’s underworld are a whole movie waiting to happen.

Ursula’s prequel comic from Dynamite Entertainment is a long-deserved expansion of the villain's lore, as her backstory provides an explanation for her devious acts and explores the events that shaped her hostility toward Triton’s rule. If Disney Villains: Ursula performs well, it offers more evidence that there's a viable audience for a larger project centered around Ariel's tentacled antagonist, whether in the form of an animated streaming series or a live-action feature film starring Melissa McCarthy.

Have you read Dynamite's previous Disney Villain comic spinoffs?

Disney Villains: Ursula #1 is available from Dynamite Entertainment on February 25, 2026.