‘The Lion King’ Follow-Up in the Works With Director Barry Jenkins

[Dead2009]

https://variety.com/2020/film/news/lion-king-sequel-director-barry-jenkins-1234786355/
Disney is returning to the Pride Lands for a follow-up to “The Lion King.” Barry Jenkins, the filmmaker behind “Moonlight” and “If Beale Street Could Talk,” will direct the sequel to the beloved family classic.

“Helping my sister raise two young boys during the 90s, I grew up with these characters,” Jenkins said. “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.”

The movie will be a continuation of the studio’s 2019 photorealistic remake, rather than the 1994 cartoon. Jon Favreau directed the recent reboot to mixed reviews but massive box office receipts; it generated over $1.5 billion at the global box office.

Disney hasn’t announced a release date for the sequel. With COVID-19 and Jenkins’ busy schedule, it’s also unclear when the special-effects heavy production will start. Sources say the new movie will partly focus on the early years of Mufasa, the regal father of Simba whose death forms the emotional heart of the first film and its remake. Jeff Nathanson, who wrote the screenplay for the 2019 movie, is returning to write the follow-up.

 

[Bill007]

Oh no. Can't they just let sleeping lions be? We don't need anymore Lion King or other over-sequeled films.

 

[MrJT]

Oh no. Can't they just let sleeping lions be? We don't need anymore Lion King or other over-sequeled films.

Agreed. We already got two sequels, a reboot, and two animated series.

 

[batuuboba]

I agree with the thoughts of those here already. I think it'll be meh if I'm being nice. I didn't have good things to say about the 2019 remake because of the general fails in CGI and voice acting/singing. I'm hopeful they can get out the kinks with the faces they had in the 2019 version but I really don't think we're there. Lion King is a favorite of mine right up there with Mulan, so to see these two renditions flop stings..but it was inevitable. The only redeeming factor will be if I get to listen to James Earl Jones' voice for two hours, but if they opt for a new and younger voice I'm not gonna even entertain the thought of viewing.

 

[Dead2009]

 

[DodgerGirl]

The thing with live-action versions of Disney films is that sometimes the idea will work and sometimes it doesn't. With the new Mufasa movie coming soon I think it will fail because for one thing how will they find a replacement voice for Mufasa that comes close to James Earl Jones? Because in the animated version of The Lion King Mufasa's voice was done by James Earl Jones and James Earl Jones was superb in that role. But who do you think will provide Mufasa's voice in this movie? The Mufasa movie from what I learned about it will actually be a prequel to the live-action The Lion King so I guess it will have Scar Mufasa's brother in it too. And if they do put Scar in the movie they will have to cast an actor that will do Scar's voice justice as good as Jeremy Irons did in the animated movie. But in my eyes I think the main reason Mufasa was chosen as the leading The Lion King character was because a lot of people were curious about his backstory and Disney finally decided to tell the story. When you look at it I think out of all the Disney movies The Lion King is the most celebrated movie and by having three movies plus the live-action movie and the two cartoon series I think The Lion King fans will enjoy it

 

[gmi3804]

OMG, he’s sold out. We were at the world premiere screening of Moonlight at the Telluride Film Fest, where he’d gotten his big break as a student filmmaker a few years earlier. He was so excited for an audience to see his first film. A year later, at the same opening night screening, he introduced Greta Gerwig, who was excited to show Ladybird to us and take the baton (and hopefully the luck) from him at that special time slot.