Since he announced a planned new version of The Lion King back in September last year, we were wondering who Jon Favreau would hire to voice the main characters. We now know two people, with James Earl Jones as Mufasa and Donald Glover taking over the role of Simba.
Jones, of course, has form on this front: he voiced Mufasa in the 1994 animated film, and there's really no one else you can hear saying the character's lines. So while it will naturally invite more comparisons between the two, it feels like a smart move. And Glover, who has been on a roll recently after snagging the part of young Lando Calrissian in the Han Solo film and winning awards for his TV series Atlanta is more than able to bring the needed exuberance and pathos to Simba.
While it's a little bit of a misnomer to call this the "live-action" Lion King (there are, after all, no human characters, and all the animals will be brought to life using the lauded effects tech used on Favreau's Jungle Book), we still have to wonder how seeing a photo-real (or close) lion's death will work in the course of the story. It was sad enough seeing cartoon Mufasa go to the clouds... The new film doesn't yet have a release date.
Donald Glover Will Be Lando Calrissian In The New Han Solo Film