Barry Jenkins’ ‘The Lion King’ Prequel Has Found Its Mufasa (Hint: It’s Not James Earl Jones)

I’m still having a hard time wrapping my head around Barry Jenkins — that’s Oscar-winning Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk filmmaker Barry Jenkins — directing a The Lion King movie for Disney. I’m having an equal amount of difficulty thinking about Mufasa not being voiced by James Earl Jones. But here we are: Jenkins is making a prequel to 2019’s The Lion King (I would rather pretend that movie doesn’t exist, so let’s say it’s to 1994’s The Lion King), and Mufasa will be voiced by Aaron Pierre.

Deadline reports that the actor, who worked with Jenkins on Amazon Prime Video’s fantastic The Underground Railroad limited series, will play the deep-voiced lion in the prequel, which “further explore the mythology of the iconic characters, including Mufasa’s origin story.” Additionally, Kelvin Harrison Jr. “is playing Taka,” a.k.a. Scar.

The untitled prequel (which Disney describes as live-action) will continue with the photorealistic animation technology that director Jon Favreau used in the blockbuster 2019 update… Jeff Nathanson, who scripted the last installment, is back in the fold.

Mufasa was voiced by Gary Anthony Williams in The Lion Guard series, but otherwise, it’s all James Earl Jones in the movies — including The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride, which takes place after the original. That seems difficult considering… y’know. I have not seen the sequel in 20 years, so please don’t yell at me, but I’m guessing it involves Rafiki getting up to some monkey business. (You can yell at me for that.)