Board Thread:Spoilers!/@comment-4877635-20160624153325/@comment-24674051-20160627171523

I will agree that having the genie from "Fruit of the Poisonous Tree" also serve as Aladdin's genie is possible, and does make sense in some ways. Plus going that route would  negate the need to cast a different genie (and thus further tipping the writer's hand on which story was being told). But you still have the need for the 'evil wizard' figure, which is present in both the original tale and in the Disney version. And in this case, the expectation would be having Jafar, and I'm not sure if Naveen Andrews is available. Of course, recasting Jafar would only upset those that have seen Wonderland, but I think that is a recast that is unwise.

Now, to the point showing the tale in flashback, that would actually be in line with using the Season 1 format. The flashbacks from season 1 were the fairy tales that the characters originaed from (Snow White, Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, etc). So having the Aladdin story be in flashback would be OK. Having it in flashback also resolves the issue of Jafar being a Genie (which is his current state as of the end of Wonderland) since the flashback would be before the first curse was broken, and therefore Jafar would still be just a wizard.

And I will agree that is possible that the casting calls are really hiding the casting for Aladdin and Jasmine. But I'm still personally taking the casting calls at face value. (But, as a side note, I would not object to Aladdin and Jasmine if it means that we also get Giancarlo and Naveen).