On Friday, November 23, 2018, the Internet freaked out over the first trailer released for the live action Lion King movie coming out on July 19th, 2019! When it comes out, it will have been 25 years since the beloved, original cartoon movie was released. The movie includes all of our favorite songs and the classic tale of Simba, Mufasa, and the wicked Scar. The trailer shows mostly the opening scene of Simba being held in front of the entire animal kingdom, which only leaves you to wonder how everything else will look. I know, I can’t wait either!
So what can we expect from the Lion King?
For one, all of the famous features, such as Donald Glover as Simba, Beyoncé as Nala, James Earl Jones as Mufasa, Seth Rogan as Pumbaa, John Oliver as Zazu (only fitting), and many more. This a giant big-name cast with some of the most talented people in the industry today, so it will be fascinating to see how each plays into our favorite childhood Disney movie.
In addition, the movie is classified as live action, and so obviously the design will be done a bit differently than we’re used to. Production uses a lot of virtual reality tools, similarly done in the recent remake of The Jungle Book. There’s something intriguing about remakes of our favorite movies, such as Beauty and the Beast and Maleficent. With The Lion King being one of Disney’s biggest movies to date, it’s only right that it joins onto the list of recent movie remakes.
There’s still much to find out about this epic movie, so I know I’ll be keeping my eye out for more information. Is this an attempt to profit off of our nostalgia? Probably. Am I still going to see it? Hell yeah.