Like many, Barry Jenkins thought he was an unusual choice to direct a prequel to 2019’s ‘The Lion King’ and didn’t even bother reading the script when Disney approached him with the offer.
“I definitely thought that when it first came my way,” the ‘Moonlight’ director recently told GamesRadar+ and Total Film. “I got a call from my agent saying, ‘Disney has sent over this project – a prequel for ‘The Lion King.’’ And I said, ‘Yeah, that’s not going to happen.’ But without even reading the thing!”
At the time, Jenkins was planning to take some time off with his partner, filmmaker Lulu Wang, and was ready to say no before she convinced him to give it a chance.
“I expected to read five pages, and about 45 pages in, I turned to her, and said, ‘Hell, this shit is good,’” Jenkins recalled. “And the next day, I finished it. As someone who was very familiar with ‘The Lion King,’ I was shocked at how many things I assumed I knew, or how many things I thought were etched in stone about who these characters were, and what the themes of ‘The Lion King’ were, to be honest.”
He added, “I was just shocked at how [screenwriter Jeff Nathanson] had dislodged so many of these notions, and how much of what I feel like is prominent in my work, I felt like was prominent in this…”
Disney’s live-action ‘The Lion King’ remake became a massive hit, earning over $1.6 billion globally and ranking as the seventh-highest-grossing film of all time. In September 2020, the studio confirmed the prequel about Mufasa’s rise as king, with Barry Jenkins as its director.
Earlier this year, Jenkins reflected on his decision to join the project, saying, “You are probably wondering… what is the director of ‘Moonlight’ doing talking to me about an eight-quadrant tentpole legacy IP massive film? And I gotta say, the thought was very strange to me at first, as well. But oh my god. It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life, and I’m so glad I made this picture.”
‘Mufasa: The Lion King’ will hit theaters on December 20 with photorealistic visuals like the first film and 2016’s ‘The Jungle Book.’ Aaron Pierre will star as Mufasa alongside Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Taka/Scar, John Kani as Rafiki, Seth Rogen as Pumbaa, and Preston Nyman as Zazu.
