The Lion King

On the heels of last week’s Aladdin update comes another exciting bit of casting news for another big Disney remake. This time it’s Jon Favreau’s take on The Lion King, which has enlisted Alfre Woodard as the voice of Sarabi — head lioness, partner to Mufasa, and mother of Simba in the upcoming live-action (ish) version of the studio’s beloved animated classic.

We won’t know if the upcoming live-action Lion King remake is a ‘good movie,’ however you might define the term, until its release on July 19, 2019. But with two years to go until the big unveiling, director Jon Favreau is already off to a strong start. There‘s been a clever little edge to his casting thus far, as he’s tapped black actors for the lion roles in the film (Donald Glover will voice Simba, and James Earl Jones will lend his velvety baritone to sage father Mufasa) and white actors as the other members of the animal kingdom (Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen will voice Timon and Pumbaa; John Oliver has signed on as toucan Zazu), reinforcing the allegory of discord among the royal family and fully transposing it to its African setting.

Watching an actor record a role in a sound booth for an animated film usually feels a little off, and that’s especially true when those actors are reading lines you memorized as a kid from a movie beloved worldwide like few others. But watching Jeremy Irons read and sing Scar’s most dastardly evil parts from ‘The Lion King’ is just plain delicious fun.

Pop quiz, hotshot: what does an actor do after he retires from one of the most iconic superhero roles of all time? Answer: anything he wants! Nobody would fault Hugh Jackman for spending the next several years drinking mojitos on the beach and packing on some of the pounds he was contractually obligated to keep off for the X-Men franchise, but it sounds like Jackman isn’t about to rest on his laurels anytime soon. The actor has been hinting at an upcoming Disney collaboration over the last day, sharing suggestive photos of himself at Disney parks, and now a hot new rumor seems to explain why.

The upcoming Lion King will bear only a slight resemblance to the Disney animated classic families know and love. As with director Jon Favreau’s earlier rework of The Jungle Book, this film will shoot in live-action (a questionable term when all of the main characters are computer-generated imaged, but whatever) and eschew the musical numbers of the original film. A new casting notice has apprised us of yet another change to the fabric of the film, specifically that Simba’s toucan pal Zazu will now spend the film pointing emphatically to graphics in the upper-left-hand corner of the screen and screaming at fictitious office coworker Janice in Accounting.

We’re still waiting for news of the live-action (ish) Lion King, but the franchise’s TV arm has its own brand-new Scar. Lion King sequel series The Lion Guard will borrow a Star Wars Rebels fan-favorite to bring Scar back to life (ish), and we’ve got the first look.

Jon Favreau’s “live-action” (let’s use that term loosely, here) remake of The Lion King is batting 1,000 when it comes to casting, with Donald Glover in the role of Simba and Beyoncé (rumored) for the role of Nala. But today’s additions might be the most perfect yet, as Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen have signed on to voice Timon and Pumbaa, everyone’s favorite unlikely-but-lovable meerkat and warthog buddy duo. Meanwhile, we’ll just be waiting for the other shoe to drop in this casting situation — like, say, if Favreau decides to cast Steve Bannon as Scar. Wait, actually that would be sort of perfect.

You may remember pop star Beyoncé Knowles from her stint in the late-’90s/early-’00s R&B girl group Destiny‘s Child with “Pretty Girl Rock” singer Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams (not the one from Manchester by the Sea). But did you know that the celebrated performer has cultivated an active solo career in the years since the group that made her famous broke up? Believe it or not, Knowles released a string of successful studio records over the past decade, starred in the music-video-compilation film Lemonade last year, and wed rapping man Jayson Z in 2008. And with that, I have completed my impression of someone who only heard of Beyoncé when scanning her Wikipedia page just now. We all know who Beyoncé is. She‘s Beyoncé.

Everyone who knows The Lion King remembers that signature opening sequence with the classic musical number “The Circle of Life.” But did you know this great scene was originally planned without the song? Originally, Disney filmmakers thought this sequence would be heavy on dialogue, laying out all the various characters and aspects of the plot. But then they heard the instrumental version of “Circle of Life” and realized the scene would be much stronger by letting it play. That’s just one of the kingly facts in the newest episode of You Think You Know Movies!

So get ready for the best news you’ll hear probably all week. (Yes, I know it’s Friday, but I’m very excited and am losing the ability to process linear time.) Not only is Donald Glover voicing Simba in Jon Favreau’s live-action The Lion King, but none other than James Earl Jones will be lending his vocal talents to Simba’s father Mufasa.