The Lion King movies may one day surpass Star Wars in popularity. Disney producer Sean Bailey sees a lot of potential in the franchise’s future. Bailey has been in charge of the studio’s live-action remakes since taking over as president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production in 2010. This includes the live-action Beauty and the Beast, which brought in $1.3 billion, and Aladdin, which brought in an additional $1.1 billion. With over $326 million in earnings and climbing since its most recent release, The Little Mermaid is also on course to surpass the $1 billion milestone at the box office.
The photorealistic rendition of The Lion King, which debuted in theatres in 2019, stands out among the rest. That movie made $1.7 billion while Bailey was in charge, which inspired Disney to produce a sequel.
To further build the universe of The Lion King, Bailey tells the New York Times, “There’s a lot of room to run if we can find the stories,” adding that it could even grow into a “big, epic saga” similar to Star Wars.
Could The Lion King franchise be as big as that of Star Wars?
The Star Wars franchise is enormous, given the number of feature films and television series set in the Star Wars world. Any series would have a difficult time matching Star Wars in terms of how far it has taken its cinematic universe. However, suppose you look beyond the lions and into the lives of other animals in that animal kingdom. In that case, there is undoubtedly room to explore that world for as long as moviegoers continue to fork out a lot of money to watch these kinds of films. In order to study where the heart of the audience lies, we’ll first wait and see how Mufasa: The Lion King performs.
What is Mufasa: The Lion King going to be about?
Mufasa: The Lion King, the prequel to the Disney live-action version of The Lion King, will explore the wicked Scar’s past. Barry Jenkins directed the film, while Jeff Nathanson has written the screenplay. The voices of Mufasa and Scar, respectively, in the movie are provided by Aaron Pierre and Kelvin Harrison Jr. As Timon and Pumbaa, Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen are both repeating their roles, and John Kani is back as Rafiki’s voice actor.
Earlier, footage of the upcoming prequel was shown at the D23 expo featuring Rafiki. He said, “telling the story of Mufasa to young cubs, revealing that the lion was actually an orphaned cub who had to navigate the world alone until he rose to become the king of Pride Rock. As such, the film goes beyond the iconic Pride Lands to show him as a cub in a desert, where a flood sweeps him away, and he becomes an orphan. In this place, a lion was born without a drop of nobility in his blood. The lion who would change our lives forever,”
Timon, with Billy Eichner returning as the voice of the character, also adds in the meta-joke, “Wait, wait, wait, am I not in this story? I don’t feel seen.”
Mufasa: The Lion King will be released in theaters on July 5, 2024.
