Oscar-winning director Barry Jenkins has added to The Lion King universe with Mufasa: The Lion King (now in theatres), giving us the origin story of the title character (voiced by Aaron Pierre) and providing more details on his contentious relationship with Scar, known as Taka (voiced by Kelvin Harrison Jr.) in his younger age. With the cast also including Beyoncé and her daughter Blue Ivy, Tiffany Boone, Billy Eichner, Seth Rogan and Donald Glover, the film’s stars were confident in the vision Jenkins had for this new story.
“What I love about Barry is he understood that the end to this was a granddaughter asking about her grandfather, and there’s an ancestral element to all of this,” Kelvin Harrison Jr. told Yahoo Canada in Toronto. “There’s a community and a sincerity behind trying to understand who you are and where you come from.”
“There’s something so beloved about Mufasa that I knew that there had to be someone with such a huge heart who understands the beauty of ‘the circle of life’ that could be able to visually portray something like this, especially with this new technology. But also take that story and bring it to life in a way that wasn’t so flashy, but really just about the heart of actors who are fans of the movie, and storytellers who are obsessed with the legacy of who Mufasa represented to them growing up.”
When many of us think about Mufasa, we likely still associate the character with the late James Earl Jones, who voiced the character in the 1994 animated movie. But Aaron Pierre doesn’t see taking on the voice of the character in Mufasa: The Lion King as any sort of passing of the torch.
“I don’t believe there is any taking of the torch, or anything that is synonymous with that,” Pierre said. “I really believe that what I’ve been blessed with is just the opportunity to contribute to a legacy that he has originated and cemented, and is certainly timeless and unmatched.”
“I just did my best … and I leaned heavily on Barry, and he certainly guided me, and when it was necessary course corrected me. And here’s hoping that people feel connected to the character, and they feel that they’ve gained deeper insight into such a beloved character that we all will have a very special place for in our hearts.”
While the story is centred around Kiara (Blue Ivy), daughter of Simba (Glover) and Nala (Beyoncé), asking Rafiki (John Kani) to tell her about Mufasa, another critical component of the film is understanding the evolution of Scar and Mufasa’s relationship. As we see in Mufasa: The Lion King, they aren’t biological brothers, but establish a brotherly bond when Mufasa gets separated from his parents at the beginning of the film. But through the events of the movie, Scar (then call Taka) gets jealous of Mufasa and turns on him for the first time.
Harrison Jr. was responsible for crafting the moment when we see Taka transform into the villainous Scar (just before the character gets the physical scar), which was actually the actor’s audition scene for the film.
“I came into it really leaning into the things that I loved about the original film, but it was when I got Lin-Manuel Miranda’s song, ‘Brother Betrayed,’ … that’s the transition point,” Harrison Jr. explained. “And it was with Lin that I was able to find where the actual turn would come and it’s in one word. ‘Run.'”
“Melodically it drops down, whereas everything is in this Phantom of the Opera like longing and desire and wishful thinking, and this feeling of loss and pain, but then there’s this determination of focus. And I was like, that’s beautifully written from Lin and that’s the shift.”
Back in 2019, when Disney released its remake of The Lion King, many people expressed their hesitation about a reimagined version of the story that looks much different than the 1994 animation. With Mufasa: The Lion King adding to the history of these characters, but also using different techniques for the look of its animals and the movie’s sweeping landscape, Harrison Jr. highlighted that this film isn’t meant to just be a piece of nostalgia, but rather something that can also be enjoyed by a whole new audience.
“I’m in the same boat with everybody, because when I first saw the first one I was like, OK this is not what I grew up with, and I immediately wanted to discard of it,” Harrison Jr. said. “And then I had to embrace it, because I was like, wait a second there’s something really magical about all of this.”
“There was a time where animation didn’t look like the way it looked when we grew up, and it looked like the original Mickey Mouse. And when I look back at that I was kind of like, ‘I don’t like that. I like what I have.’ … Kids now, when you ask them, they’re accustomed to seeing it be larger than life, and bigger and more immersive and more real than ever. And we have to keep in mind, this is not just for us and our generation of nostalgia. This is for a whole new generation of kids that want to go on this journey with Mufasa and Scar and Taka and Sarabi and Simba and Nala. … So I feel like, open your heart. Go for the journey and embrace yourself in it.”
But the actor did also advise anyone wanting to watch Mufasa: The Lion King to see it in 3D.
“I watched it in 3D and I thought I was literally in the water with them, and I had a great time,” Harrison Jr. said.
