Disney Live Action announced the full all-star cast of Jon Favreau’s new take on the 1994 classic animated film, The Lion King. There have been rumors swirling around Hollywood for the past few months of Beyonce and Donald Glover joining the project. However it has been officially confirmed that in addition to those two Hollywood celebrities James Earl Jones, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Alfre Woodard, Seth Rogen, Keegan-Michael Key, Eric Andre and John Oliver have joined the cast.
The highly anticipated film will be directed by Jon Favreau, who directed Disney’s 2016 hit live-action remake of “The Jungle Book.” As far as the roles of the main characters goes, Donald Glover will be the future king Simba, Bey will take on Simba’s friend-turned-love interest Nala. James Earl Jones will reprise his role of Simba’s loving father, Mufasa. Meanwhile, Chiwetel Ejiofor will answer the call to play Simba’s villainous uncle Scar, and Alfre Woodard will take on Simba’s no-nonsense mother, Sarabi.
The Lion King tells the story of Simba, a young lion who is to succeed his father, Mufasa, as King of the Pride Lands. However, after Simba’s uncle Scar murders Mufasa, Simba is manipulated into thinking he was responsible and flees into exile. Throughout the movie Simba is given some valuable perspective from his childhood friend, Nala, and his shaman, Rafiki. After much maturing and receiving worlds of wisdom from the key people in his life he builds up enough courage to face Scar. Therefore, returning to challenge Scar was necessary in order to end his tyranny and take his place in the Circle of Life as the rightful King.
In 2016, Disney made the big announcement that it would be bringing back a live-action version of The Lion King. Now, The Lion King is set to roar in theaters on July 19, 2019.
