We’ve all seen the character of Mufasa before, but never quite like this.
Disney’s latest feature tackles the central figure of ‘The Lion King,’ but now takes us back in time before he was the wise and benevolent lion we met in the 1994 film.
‘Mufasa‘ instead follows him as an orphaned cub (Aaron Pierre), who meets a sympathetic lion named Taka (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), the heir to a royal bloodline. From there, the story takes off and events are set into motion that forever changes the Animal Kingdom.
“I think the reason the character is so beloved is because he radiated an essence of love and togetherness and unity,” says Pierre at a global press conference for the film. “I think we all crave that in our own respective lives and in our own personal communities and in our global community. For me, I was certainly very nervous to contribute in a small way to the beautiful legacy that is Mufasa that the great James Earl Jones originated. Hopefully, I was able to serve that in a small way.”
The film also will see some returning talent from the 2019 remake of ‘The Lion King’ like Billy Eichner as Timon, Seth Rogan as Pumbaa and Donald Glover as Simba.
“When I first read the script by Jeff Nathanson, I realized I had assumed so many things about how one becomes a king. It was really cool to read [the] script and see all these things that we’ve concretized over 30 years about how someone becomes the perfect father, the perfect leader… and that my assumptions of what that path was, were just totally not correct,” explains Eichner.
“There was a different way that I could actually relate… More as someone who grew up far outside the path or the system that leads you to become a great leader. In that sense, I found myself closer to Mufasa in this interesting way. I realized audiences would find themselves closer as well if we did our job and cast the right person and persons, and just leaned in and tried to really build a life that people could see themselves in. [It brought] all this added levels of complexity to Mufasa.”
Some other characters are also from the original story, but in a different way. Harrison’s Taka, for example, might appear to be a new addition, but his presence changes from what it seems to become a well-known villain in the ‘Lion King’ universe.
“My first conversation with [director] Barry Jenkins, he was like just stay present, stay in the moment with Taka and allow his instincts and his natural tendencies and his love for life and people and community to shine through,” says Harrison. “I just kinda played it with that, and then threw in a nice voice, and you just see what happens.”
The music from ‘The Lion King’ is also a big part of the story. For ‘Mufasa’, creatives brought on Lin Manuel Miranda (‘Hamilton,’ ‘Moana’) to take on the large order of the soundtrack.
“That original ’94 soundtrack is an immortal soundtrack. It’s no skips from Elton John and Tim Rice, and then Hans Zimmer’s incredible score. If it had just been that first movie, I think I would have been very intimidated. But there’s been an entire world of ‘Lion King’ music. There is the incredible Broadway musical, which is one of the longest-running musicals on Broadway. There’s Beyonce’s album, ‘The Gift’, which sort of expanded the vocabulary of what a ‘Lion King’ song could sound like,” Miranda explains.
“So, it felt like this amazing world to play in. And then my secret weapon was Lebo M., who is the first voice you hear on that original film. I knew his choral arrangements and his incredible choir were going to raise whatever I wrote to the next level. And working with him and Mark Mancina, who I worked with on ‘Moana‘, I just knew I had incredible talent in my corner that would help us get to that ‘Lion King’ level.”
‘Mufasa: The Lion King’ isn’t setting out to replace the original film according to the creatives behind it. More so, it’s meant to introduce audiences to the expansion of its legacy.
“I think it all starts with living in what it is about the legacy that you’re walking in…the things you want to honor. There’s a reason why people fall in love and have been in love for 30 years with ‘The Lion King.’ Once I diagnosed what that was, it was just clarity of emotion and clarity of purpose,” director Barry Jenkins finishes. “When I first read the script at the prompting of my wife, I realized there was just such a deep depth in so many of these characters that hadn’t been on the periphery.”
“But there just wasn’t space for their stories to be told in full, for them to show their full selves. And once I saw those things, I saw all of this clarity of intent, clarity of purpose, honesty of emotion. Whether you’re a four-year-old or 104-year-old, there’s something in ‘The Lion King’ for you. And all those things were present in ‘Mufasa.’ So, just really tunnel vision burrowing into those things, I was like oh, this is clearly going to be mine. They came to me. It’s mine. And I’m not thinking about what was done before, how it was done, why it was done. I just know it was done. And so, I’m gonna live up to that and do it my way.”
Catch ‘Mufasa: The Lion King‘ in theaters Dec. 20.
