Mufasa: The Lion King, the prequel to 2019’s remake of The Lion King, is about to arrive — and star Billy Eichner is already thinking about the next film in the franchise.
Eichner returns to Mufasa as the voice of meerkat Timon, alongside Seth Rogen as lovable warthog Pumbaa, as they bring the comic relief to the Pride Lands. At the Los Angeles premiere on Monday, Eichner told The Hollywood Reporter that “maybe 90 percent” of the duo’s lines in the prequel are improvised, as they record in the booth together.
“They’re an unlikely duo and they’re the ultimate outsiders,” he continued of the characters, joking, “They’re always desperate to be in the center of the story which they never are — unless Disney makes a Timon and Pumbaa prequel, which we’re very excited about. That hasn’t been announced, we’re just putting it out there.”
Eichner mused of what that project may look like, “Lin-Manuel [Miranda], who had the audacity not to write a new Timon and Pumbaa song for this movie, had better write some songs for the prequel. I would love a Timon and Pumbaa prequel — we see how they met, how they became friends; later we watch them aging gracefully in a remorseless industry. It would be so fun.”
For now, Mufasa is taking center stage, following the origin story of the future king of the Pride Lands (voiced by Aaron Pierre) and his early relationship with Taka, who later becomes known as Scar (Kelvin Harrison Jr.). Barry Jenkins directs, and at the premiere spoke about casting Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s daughter Blue Ivy Carter as Kiara, the daughter of Simba (voiced by Donald Glover) and Nala (voiced by Beyoncé). Beyoncé and Jay-Z made a surprise appearance at the premiere to support their 12-year-old, stopping for rare photos on the red carpet.
“She gave a great audition and somehow I just felt like Kiara is the daughter of a king and queen — and I do think in some ways Blue Ivy is the daughter of a king and queen, and yet she has this really wonderful humility, a self-centeredness, a self-possession that I just found to be really invigorating and rich,” Jenkins explained. “And she just crushed this, absolutely crushed it.” He added that he didn’t consider having her sing in the movie “because in the role that she’s in, being sort of the children’s eyes and ears in this movie, she is here to receive and react and not so much to express the way the songs do.”
Pierre, who takes over the Mufasa role previously voiced by the late James Earl Jones, also noted on the carpet that the iconic actor “is a hero of mine, of course within the context of Mufasa: The Lion King but he has been a hero of mine from the very beginning, way before I even turned professional. He is the top of the mountain, so I hope I was able to serve the character he originated and I hope that I was able to make him proud.”
Mufasa: The Lion King hits theaters Dec. 20.
Anaja Smith contributed to this report.