The 2019 Lion King remake was a big box office hit for Disney, but it was still surprising to hear it was being followed up with a prequel. If you loved the first remake’s sweeping vistas and beautiful, photorealistic lions, Mufasa aims to provide more of that—and with the film now over a month out, here’s one final trailer courtesy of this weekend’s D23 event in Brazil.
Told as a story by Rafiki to Simba and Nala’s daughter Kiara, the film centers on a young adult version of Mufasa (Aaron Pierre), who starts out here as an orphan cub who crosses paths with a pride of lions and their young son, Taka (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), the future Scar. Taka’s next in line to rule over Pride Rock, and since he’s always wanted a brother, he’s more than happy to get his parents to add the orphan into his family.
Years later, the boys’ pride becomes tangled in a war with a group of white lions led by Mads Mikkelsen’s Kiros, who’s got aims to take control of Pride Rock for his own ends. With their family defeated, it falls to the two brothers to lick their wounds and try to stop the white lions. During their adventure, they brush furry shoulders with other young Lion King characters like the aforementioned Rafiki, future majordomo Zazu (Preston Nyman), and Sarabi (Tiffany Boone), who eventually becomes Mufasa’s wife. And with each friend he meets, Mufasa comes more into his own as a leader his people need. Wonder how Taka feels about that…
The new trailer is a lot like the first, filled with brotherly bonding and desperate escapes, and some teases of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s original music. Whatever you think about the expressions of the animals themselves, they still look pretty great just as photorealisitic creations on their own. But will everything come together for it to be more than 2024’s second origin story about two brothers being driven apart? We’ll find out when Mufasa: The Lion King hits theaters on December 20.
It’s time to tell you a story…#Mufasa: The Lion King arrives only in theaters December 20. pic.twitter.com/jpyy2uTDnv
— Walt Disney Studios (@DisneyStudios) November 8, 2024
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