Disney released the official trailer for the “Lion King” movie remake, coming this summer.
The trailer reveals more of the characters, story, and voices audiences can expect upon the movie’s release.
A couple of teaser trailers showing a tidbit of the movie were already released: one in November, and another in February. This official trailer comes on April 10, just about three months before the movie goes into theaters.
The trailer opens with the voice of Chiwetel Ejiofor as the evil Scar. The iconic voice of James Earl Jones is then heard as Mufasa as the character appears in the trailer. Jones’s voice was the only one featured in the November teaser.
In 100 days, the king arrives. Watch the brand new trailer for #TheLionKing now. pic.twitter.com/OIjl7GQzyE
— The Lion King (@disneylionking) April 10, 2019
“In 100 days, the king arrives. Watch the brand new trailer for #TheLionKing now,” wrote the official Twitter account for “The Lion King.”
Crowd favorites Timon and Pumbaa appear, and sing at the end of the trailer. Billy Eichner is listed in the IMDB credits as the voice of Timon, and Seth Rogen plays Pumbaa.
The young Simba is played by JD McCrary, while the mature Simba is voiced by Donald Glover.
The trailer also mentions that the movie was directed by the same person who did “The Jungle Book,” which could be one of the reasons why this movie has a similar look, judging from the trailer.
Both movies are remakes of Disney’s earlier 2D animated versions of both stories.
The original “Lion King” was a landmark film for Disney. It was produced during the Disney Renaissance period. Before the renaissance, Disney wasn’t producing the type of memorable movies they are known for today and the company’s future was questionable, Den of Geek reported.
To our entire pride: Thank you for helping the teaser trailer for #TheLionKing become the most-viewed Disney trailer debut ever as it reached a record-breaking 224.6 million global views in 24 hours! pic.twitter.com/iEPrmFKaEM
— The Lion King (@disneylionking) November 24, 2018
The Disney Renaissance brought the company back up to form, and featured a decade of hit movies, from 1989 to 1999, according to The Opinion Arcade. “The Lion King” came in the midst of that, in 1994.
The new “Lion King” is one of a string of live-action and CGI updates Disney is making to its classic movies.
In the past few years, Disney has made live-action versions of classics like “Cinderella,” “Beauty and the Beast,” and “The Jungle Book,” and other films loosely based around earlier animated classics.
A remake of “Dumbo” is in theaters now, and “Aladdin” will be out in May, followed by “The Lion King.”
“Mulan” is scheduled for 2020, a “Jungle Book” sequel is in the works, and “The Sword in the Stone” will also get a live-action version, Insider reported.
Other live-action/CGI spinoffs of Disney classics are also planned, usually they focus on a character that was not the focus of the original movie.
Disney is even planning remakes of its earliest films, classics like “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” and “Pinocchio,” the two earliest animated movies made by Disney.
The movie will be out on July 19, and will play in IMAX, RealD 3D, and Dolby Cinema formats.
“The Lion King” is also still a highly successful, long-running Broadway musical and touring show. The show opened on Broadway in 1997, and, according to NPR, has since become the most successful Broadway show ever, performing in 19 countries.
