Donald Glover is headed to the African wilderness for his latest role as he is tapped to play Simba in the upcoming "The Lion King" remake. The announcement just came over the weekend exciting fans of the classic Disney property across the globe.
Project helmer Jon Favreau delivered the good news via his official Twitter account posting a photo of Glover with the caption, "I just can't wait to be king. #Simba." The 50-year-old filmmaker and the "Atlanta" actor first met late last year when they both partook in an industry roundtable hosted by The Hollywood Reporter where the former admitted that his 15-year-old son is a huge fan of the latter's musician alter-ego, Childish Gambino.
What has yet to be determined is whether Glover will have a younger counterpart to voice Simba while he was still a guileless cub or not. In the original 1994 animated movie, Jonathan Taylor Thomas voiced the young version of the character, while Matthew Broderick did his adult incantation.
Shortly after the statement regarding Glover being on board with the aforementioned project, Favreau also confirmed that the iconic James Earl Jones, who voiced Mufasa in the debut flick, will also be back to reprise his role. Fans were quick to point out the "Star Wars" connection between the two actors who are now scheduled to play father and son in the reimagining of one of Disney's most iconic movies ever.
The upcoming"The Lion King" film is expected to take on a similar approach used by Favreau on last year's real-life retelling of "The Jungle Book," which received a Best Visual Effects nominee from this year's "Academy Awards." Many have high hopes for the project given the remaining amount of time to improve and polish the current groundbreaking technology to make the animal characters look more flawlessly real.
Aside from Glover and Jones, no other casting choices have been announced for the movie so far. But "The Lion King" CGI remake is said to film back-to-back with "The Second Jungle Book" scheduled for a 2019 release date with Favreau directing both projects.
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