The Lion King prequel has found its Mufasa and Scar. Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Aaron Pierre will head to the Pride Lands, to voice at-odds brothers Mufasa and Scar.
Barry Jenkins is attached to direct the prequel to the 2019 adaptation which will further explore the mythology of the iconic characters, including Mufasa’s origin story. Jeff Nathanson, who scripted the last installment, is back to tell the beginning story.
“Helping my sister raise two young boys during the ’90s, I grew up with these characters,” Jenkins said of the prequel. “Having the opportunity to work with Disney on expanding this magnificent tale of friendship, love and legacy while furthering my work chronicling the lives and souls of folk within the African diaspora is a dream come true.”
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Harrison Jr. will portray Scar, whose birth-name is Taka and Pierre is set to play Mufasa.
This project reunites Pierre with Jenkins, as they worked together on Amazon’s historical TV series The Underground Railroad.
More details on the film and casting are still underwraps, but after the success of the live-action Lion King, which grossed $1.6 billion at the global box office — overtaking Frozen to become the highest-grossing animated film of all time, Disney has been eager for this prequel. Hans Zimmer (who scored the original and 2019 version), Pharrell, and Succession’s Nicholas Britell will score The Lion Kign prequel.
Additional casting is in the works and if it is anything like the 2019 box-office hit, this project will have some big names attached to it.
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The recent remake, directed by Jon Favreau, cast Donald Glover as Simba, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter as Nala, Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen and as Timon and Pumbaa and James Earl Jones as Mufasa. Jeff Nathanson, who wrote the screenplay for the 2019 movie, is returning to write the follow-up.
Jenkins’ PASTEL partners Adele Romanski and Mark Ceryak are producing with Disney.
As for Harrison Jr., in the meantime, up next he will star in in Joe Wright’s Cyrano and as B.B.King in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis Presley biopic.
Pierre was most recently seen in M. Night Shyamalan’s Old and as Caesar in all ten episodes of The Underground Railroad.