Disney has released the first poster for the live-action remake ofThe Lion King. Yesterday, fans were treated to a special gift from the studio when they dropped thefirst Lion King trailerfor the highly anticipated remake, which is nearly shot-for-shot the same as the animated trailer that was released back in 1994. The footage isn’t the only thing that is nearly identical to the original trailer. The music and James Earl Jones' speech are also really similar as well, giving fans a sense of nostalgia.
The firstLion Kingposter features the awesome-lookingSimbastepping into a large footprint, which more than likely belongs to his father,Mufasa. Disney is definitely going for the nostalgic angle with this live-action remake, which is directed by Jon Favreau, who helmed the successfulJungle Booklive-action remake in 2016. The new design of Simba is similar to the original design while taking the look in a new direction for the live-action remake. While the trailer and poster aren’t a whole lot to go off of, everything looks like it’s going to be groundbreaking. Well, with the exception of the story.
In addition to the return of James Earl Jones, the cast ofThe Lion Kingremake includes JD McCrary as young Simba and Donald Glover as adult Simba. Beyoncé stars as an adult Nala, John Oliver as Zazu, Chiwetel Ejofor as the villainous Scar, Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen asTimon & Pumbaa, Alfre Woodard as Sarabi, John Kani as Rafiki, Florence Kasumba as Shenzi, Eric Andre as Azizi, and Keegan-Michael Key as Kamari. Elton John is back on board for the soundtrack and he teamed up with Beyoncé for a new track, which will probably be huge.
Back in September of 2016, it was announced that Jon Favreau would direct the live-action remake ofThe Lion King. Disney moved fast, hiring Jeff Nathanson to write the screenplay a few weeks later. From there, it was revealed that Favreau was going to utilize a more powerful virtual cinematography technology that he used forThe Jungle Bookon the new live-action remake. The remake uses photorealistic computer-generated animation, and Disney says that they broke new ground while making this latest adaptation ofThe Lion King.
Production onThe Lion Kingremake started in summer 2017 in Los Angeles against a blue screen. The movie hits theaters on July 19th, 2019, which also marks the 25th anniversary of the original movie. Now that we’ve finally seen the first promotional material for the remake, it’s only a matter of time before we get to see the full trailer. Additionally, the behind-the-scenes features will more than likely be sought after by fans who are interested in how exactly Jon Favreau and crew were able to put this new version ofThe Lion Kingtogether. You can check out the first poster forThe Lion King, featuring young Simba below, thanks toJon Favreau’s Twitteraccount.
