Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Aaron Pierre Cast in ‘Lion King’ Prequel

Like it or not, the ‘Lion King’ prequel is closer to becoming a reality.

Last fall, it was announced that Disney was moving forward with a prequel to their 2019 live action remake of the animated classic and that none other than Barry Jenkins would be directing. Nearly a year later, Jenkins has found his two lead actors having just cast Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Aaron Pierre to bring the characters to life.

Unlike its predecessor, which saw original director Jon Favreau basically give audiences a beat by beat rehash of the 1994 movie only with photorealistic animation technology, this instalment will take a look at the origins behind Mufasa and Scar and how their different paths ultimately lead these two brothers to become enemies. For Jenkins, the goal is to do a '“Godfather Part II” storyline that explores more of the world of Pride Rock.

Director Barry Jenkins

Pierre, who previously worked with Jenkins on the Amazon miniseries “The Underground Railroad” and recently appeared in M Night Shyamalan’s “Old”, will voice the younger Mufasa and will step into the big shoes of James Earl Jones who voiced the character in both the animated and live action versions. Harrison will be voicing a young Scar and will take over from Chiwetel Ejiofor. The young actor has already been making a strong impression on audiences winning strong notices for his performances in “It Comes at Night”, “Luce” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7”. Harrison will next be seen in Joe Wright’s musical version of “Cyrano” and Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” as legendary blues singer BB King.

Even with Jenkins at the helm and this casting, reaction to this project are pretty much the same as they were when it was announced. While it is fantastic that Jenkins is getting to helm a studio tentpole that could give him the money to make future smaller projects, it is a shame he chose a follow up to one of the most soulless products to hit the big screen in recent memory and although they may be going in a different direction this time, it doesn’t change the fact that this is an unnecessary film that is only being made because the previous film made $1.6 billion worldwide.

To end on a positive note, it is certainly possible that Jenkins can be bring his unique vision to what on paper seems like a bad idea. Production has just begun and a release date has not been scheduled so the time to reserve judgement is when the first trailer appears. For now, all audiences can do is just hope for something a little more palatable and original that the Favreau remake.