Queen Amaya was one of the main antagonists in the original version of Disney's 62th full-length animated feature film Wish.
She was to be the wife of King Magnifico like in the finished film, but rather than being a heroic and ultimately selfless and kind ruler, Amaya was going to be as bad as her husband, tyrannicaly ruling the Kingdom of Rosas with an iron fist.
She was voiced by Angelique Cabral in the finished project.
Biography[]
In the earliest iteration for the story of Wish written by Jennifer Lee, Queen Amaya was conceived as not only King Magnifico's wife, but also her devious co-conspirator in ruling over the Kingdom of Rosas. According to art/character director Bill Schwab, Amaya and Magnifico were supposed to come from a powerful crime family and run the Kingdom of Rosas like the titular characters of the HBO crime drama series The Sopranos, with Amaya behaving like Carmela Soprano as her husband behaved like Tony Soprano. They would have also owned a sphynx cat named Charo.
Eventually, at some point through the film's development, however, Amaya evolved into a more benevolent character who sees through Asha's potential to do good and who opts to step into her own power once she realizes that her husband is going too far. Thus, Amaya was ultimately rewritten into one of the film's heroes. Despite this, Amaya's design didn't drastically change at all into the final version.
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Trivia[]
- One of the designs Queen Amaya had before being changed into an heroic character had her having hair buns, much like those worn by Princess Leia in Star Wars.
- The finished film references King Magnifico trapped in the staff to the Magic Mirror of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Taking into account Queen Amaya's original characterization, it's possible that the film, had it retained her original role, might have implied that Amaya would become the Evil Queen or a precursor of hers, or shared Magnifico’s fate.