Young Simba gets competing lessons from Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Scar (“Life’s not fair”) and James Earl Jones’ Mufasa (“You must take your place in the circle of life”) in the first full trailer for Disney’s CG-heavy live-action remake of “The Lion King.”
The trailer promises more of the lush, extremely realistic CGI that director Jon Favreau and his team brought to the 2016 remake of “The Jungle Book.” Simba and Mufasa look and walk like lions straight out of a nature documentary, with the Pride Lands recreated as an African savannah with perfectly rendered grass that antelopes and elephants traverse through.
The clip also features a brief snippet of Seth Rogen’s warthog Pumbaa and Billy Eichner’s meerkat Timon singing “Weemoway.”
Released 25 years after the original, the remake of “The Lion King” will star Donald Glover as Simba, along with Beyonce Knowles-Carter, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Billy Eichner, Seth Rogen, John Oliver, John Kani, Alfre Woodard, Florence Kasumba, Eric Andre and Keegan-Michael Key.
“The Lion King” is expected to be one of the highest grossing films of the 2019 box office, as it shares a nostalgia factor enjoyed by the 2017 remake of “Beauty and the Beast.”
That remake, released in March, grossed $504 million domestically and $1.26 billion worldwide.
“The Lion King” hits theaters July 19.