Barry Jenkins announces Mufasa: The Lion will release in 2024

The filmmaker revealed that the audience will get to see younger versions of the characters Timon, Pumbaa and Rafiki in the film. Timon aka Billy Eichner was also mocked in the short teaser, starting with Rafiki’s (John Kanye) statement, “Wait wait wait, am I not in this story? I can’t seem to see it.”
Asked why he planned to tell the story of Mufasa, Jenkins, who has previously directed Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk, said, “I had to make this film because when I was 14, I was helping raise two nephews. And there was a VHS tape that we watched 95 times in a span of 20 days. So I really knew his character. I loved him. Then, as I read this wonderful script, I was thinking about Mufasa, why he is great and how people become great. I thought it was such a beautiful story to tell.”

The classic Walt Disney Studios film The Lion King was originally released in 1994 and was based on the theme of the victory of good over evil. In 2019, it was remade by the studio and it once again gained popularity among the audience and became a box office hit.