9 Crazy Movie Fan Theories That Turned Out To Be True

Robin Williams’ Other Role In Aladdin Is The Genie

Aladdin opens with an introduction from a sleazy market peddler who has a magical lamp in his possession, and his story about the lamp then begins the film. This character’s disconnected from the main narrative apart from the fact that he’s voiced by the late, great Robin Williams, who obviously also voices the Genie.

While the movie doesn’t include anything to connect the two, due to the wish-giver’s habit of shapeshifting and putting on different voices, Disney fans believed that the peddler was actually the Genie in disguise, which would also explain the shopkeeper’s ability to break the fourth wall and address the audience.

This isn’t just a neat theory, but something the filmmakers actually intended to reveal in Aladdin‘s closing moments. “That was the whole intention, originally,” director Ron Clements said in 2015. “We even had that at the end of the movie, where he would reveal himself to be the Genie, and of course Robin did the voice of the peddler. Just through story changes and some editing, we lost the reveal at the end. So, that’s an urban legend that actually is true.”