The Lion King Trailer Reveals Wild Origin Story (and Blue Ivy Carter’s Debut!)

Mufasa: The Lion King is roaring into theaters quickly.

On the D23 fan occasion held in ​​Anaheim, Calif. on Aug. 9, Walt Disney Studios unveiled a brand new full trailer for the film, a prequel to 2019’s blockbuster live-action reimagining of The Lion King.

A earlier teaser for Mufasa debuted in April, that includes narration from Rafiki and a primary take a look at younger Mufasa set to the “Circle of Life” tune. 

Mufasa will take viewers by the character’s origin story as he goes from an orphaned cub to the legendary king of the Satisfaction Lands. It’s going to additionally inform the story of his relationship along with his brother Taka, in any other case identified to followers as Scar. 

Kiara, the daughter of Simba and Nala, is in components of the movie, as are Timon and Pumbaa. 

“What you may be taught from the story is that Mufasa is who he’s … due to the household and the buddies that he has,” director Barry Jenkins mentioned at Disney’s D23 Expo again in 2022. “And so I noticed myself in that. I assumed: ‘It is a actually stunning story to inform.’ ”

The return of the much-loved animated movie can even embody the actors who voiced the characters within the 2019 installment. Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner, John Kani and Beyoncé will all reprise their roles as Simba, Pumbaa, Timon, Rafiki and Nala, respectively. 

There might be just a few recent faces as effectively. The brand new solid members embody Aaron Pierre as younger Mufasa, Kelvin Harrison Jr. as younger Scar, Tiffany Boone as Sarabi, Mads Mikkelsen as Kiros, Thandiwe Newton as Eshe, Lennie James as Obasi, and Blue Ivy Carter making her function movie debut as Kiara.

Blue Ivy beforehand grew to become the youngest particular person Grammy winner in 2021 at 9 years previous after she was credited on her mom Beyoncé’s 2019 tune and music video for “Brown Pores and skin Lady.” The tune was included within the soundtrack album The Lion King: The Present, which featured new songs impressed by the movie.   

“I really feel like Blue grew fairly a bit over the course of that tour,” Jenkins instructed PEOPLE in April 2024. “The film is type of like this snapshot, this time capsule of a second of their lives that I feel is basically stunning. And it completely labored for the movie.”

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This time round, followers can count on new unique songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda, identified for his musical contributions to different Disney animated movies like Moana and Encanto. 

“The Lion King has an unimaginable musical legacy with music from a number of the best songwriters round, and I am humbled and proud to be part of it,” Miranda mentioned in a press release. “It has been a pleasure working alongside Barry Jenkins to carry Mufasa’s story to life, and we will not await audiences to expertise this movie in theaters.”

Mufasa: The Lion King is in theaters Dec. 20.