The Lion King: Barry Jenkins explains why he wanted to direct the prequel

No matter what your thoughts were on Jon Favreau’s photo-realistic animated adaptation of The Lion King, the worldwide box-office spoke loud and clear — with $1.6 billion to its name, Disney clearly wanted to keep the story going and announced a Lion King prequel the following year. Wasn’t a huge surprise, but what was surprising was that the studio tapped Moonlight director Barry Jenkins to helm the Lion King prequel.

Although Barry Jenkins isn’t the first person I’d think of when it comes to a prequel movie about computer-generated lions, he explained to Variety why he wanted to take the gig. Jenkins said that the characters have always meant “so much” to him as he grew up with the original 1994 movie, but he knew there was something special about the Lion King prequel while he was reading to script by Jeff Nathanson.

About 40 pages in, I turned to Lulu [Wang] and I said, ‘Holy shit, this is good’. As I kept reading, I got further away from the side of my brain that said, ‘Oh, a filmmaker like you doesn’t make a film like this,’ and allowed myself to get to the place where these characters, this story, is amazing.

Barry Jenkins added that getting to tell the story of how Mufasa rose to become king was very appealing. “Kings aren’t just born, they aren’t just made,” Jenkins said. “They have to become who they are through a series of events that a lot of people can relate to. So, from that standpoint, it fits very well with everything else I’ve done. So I feel no pressure, I just want to do a good job.” Getting to play around in the virtual sandbox with CG lions also interested Barry Jenkins as it’s something he’s never gotten to do before.

The Lion King prequel is said to explore the mythology of the characters, including Mufasa’s origin story, but it will also follow certain events from the end of the first film, which has prompted comparisons to The Godfather Part II. It was revealed last summer that Aaron Pierre (The Underground Railroad) and Kelvin Harrison Jr. (The Trial of the Chicago 7) would voice Mufasa and Scar, respectively.

Are you excited Barry Jenkins is directing the Lion King prequel?