With two of the hottest young actors working today, The Lion King prequel is shaping up to be quite the viewing. Deadline reports that Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Aaron Pierre will join the upcoming Disney and Barry Jenkins project.
Aaron Pierre will join Mufasa in this prequel, taking over the legendary James Earl Jones role. Harrison Jr. is playing Taka, which is the real name of the villainous Scar.
Deadline reports that we’ll soon learn more casting news about The Lion King prequel. Production is currently underway, with Moonlight and The Underground Railroad director helming. The film will reportedly dive into the mythology of the iconic characters, which includes looking at Mufasa’s origin story.
Jenkins will continue with the photorealistic animation technology used in the first film and sees the returning Jeff Nathanson penning this script. Hans Zimmer, Pharrell, and Nicholas Britell are in charge of the film’s score and musical elements.
In 2019, the new The Lion King, directed by Jon Favreau, grossed more than $1.6BN worldwide. It currently sits at 52% on Rotten Tomatoes. As of the time of writing, there’s no release date set for Barry Jenkins’ Lion King prequel.
