“Well before Simba took his place in the circle of life, another great king ruled over the Pride Lands. This is his story,” president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Sean Bailey told the crowd at Disney’s fan celebration, D23 Expo, Friday afternoon inside the Anaheim Convention Center where Insider was in attendance.
“‘Mufasa’ is the origin story of one of the greatest kings in the history of pride lions,” director Barry Jenkins added, saying that the film will be told in different time frames as it shifts between the present and past.
“Rafiki, Timon, and Pumbaa — we all know and love — are relaying the story of Mufasa,” said Jenkins.
Jenkins added that Mufasa wasn’t born into royalty. The prequel to the 2019 movie, which grossed over $1.6 billion, will show how he came from a humble life to rise into power over Pride Rock.
“Mufasa was actually an orphaned cub who had to navigate the world alone, by himself,” Jenkins said of the prequel. “In telling this story, we get to experience the real journey of how Mufasa found his place in the Circle of Life. It is pretty awesome.”
When asked why he felt he had to make this movie, given his body of work which includes Oscar winner “Moonlight,” Jenkins recounted his personal connection to 1994’s “The Lion King”: “When I was 14, I was helping raise two nephews and there was a VHS tape we watched maybe 95 times in a span of 20 days. So I really knew this character. I loved him.”
“As I was reading this wonderful script, I was thinking about Mufasa and why he’s great and how people become great,” Jenkins said, adding, “What you’ll learn in this story is that Mufasa is who he is, he is great, because of the family and friends he has with him, and so I saw myself in that.”
The film’s narration element seems awfully reminiscent of “The Lion King 1 1/2,” which was a terribly boring Disney sequel that recounted the events of “The Lion King” from Pumbaa and Timon’s points of view.
Here, it seems like “Mufasa” is learning from that animated sequel’s mistakes by having Rafiki relay some of the story to Pumbaa and Timon.
Jenkins debuted a gorgeous one-minute and 20 second teaser exclusive to Disney’s D23 Expo which showcased the young cub in peril, hanging onto a log in a body of water. The imagery instantly brought to mind Mufasa’s iconic death scene in “The Lion King” where he saved his son Simba as he clung to a tree branch before being tossed from the side of a cliff by his brother, Scar.
Curiously, no mention of Scar was made during the panel.
Timon and Pumbaa, voiced by Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen, were also seen at the end of the teaser footage speaking to Rafiki.
“Wait. Wait. Wait. So, just to be clear, we’re not in this story?” Timon asks Rafiki.
Pumbaa added: “There’s a lot of stories with all of us. Tell one of those.”
“You know, I don’t feel seen,” Timon added to laughter from the crowd as the clip ended.
Likewise, Jenkins and Bailey did not say whether or not James Earl Jones, who voiced the adult Mufasa in both the animated and CGI remakes of “The Lion King,” will reprise his role again for the prequel.
“Mufasa” will be in theaters in 2024.