Barry Jenkins Hits Back At Critics For Calling Mufasa A Part Of Disney's 'Soulless Machine'

Earlier this week, Disney dropped the first official trailer of Mufasa: The Lion King, directed by Barry Jenkins. This movie is a prequel to Jon Favreau’s 2019 live-action The Lion King, which was itself based on the beloved 1994 Disney animated classic. The upcoming movie explores the struggles of Simba’s father, Mufasa, who’ll be shown as an orphan who rises to become a smart, powerful and kind ruler. However, since the trailer was released, social media users had mixed responses, some even felt disappointed and questioned Jenkins’s involvement with Bob Iger-led Disney.

Despite the backlash, the Oscar winner defended the film.

Soon after the filmmaker shared the Mufasa trailer on X, a user said, “Barry, You’re too good and talented for this Iger’s soulless machine.” Surprisingly, Jenkins was quick to respond and replied, “There is nothing soulless about The Lion King. For decades children have sat in theatres all over the world experiencing collective grief for the first time, engaging Shakespeare for the first time, across aisles in myriad languages. A most potent vessel for communal empathy.”

In an earlier interview with the Empire, talking about the new setting and characters in Mufasa: The Lion King, Barry Jenkins explained, “It’s a ‘journey’ film. We’re used to all these characters living together in this one place and I think part of objective is to really show where all these people came from and how they ended up together. I have this really off colour joke where I like to say that there are tons of people who go to high school literary programmes and read The Snows of Kilimanjaro and still have no idea that it snows on the continent of Africa. It was just cool for me to have the opportunity to expand the scope of what the world of The Lion King was and in doing so, get to experience some of these really amazing environments.”

Talking about the connection between The Lion King and its sequel Mufasa, the filmmaker elaborates that events in the upcoming film are happening in “parallel timelines,” featuring the past life of young Mufasa alongside the present-day journey of Simba and Nala’s daughter, Kiara. However, Jenkins remained tight-lipped about the exact connections between the two films.

Meanwhile, Aaron Pierre and Kelvin Harrison Jr. will lend their voices to younger versions of Mufasa and Scar, respectively, in Mufasa: The Lion King. Interestingly, several cast members from the 2019 hit The Lion King are set to reprise their roles, including Beyonce as Nala, Donald Glover as Simba, John Kani as Rafiki, Seth Rogen as Pumbaa and Billy Eichner as Timon. Additionally, Beyonce and Jay Z’s 12-year-old daughter Blue Ivy Carter will voice the character of Kiara. The upcoming Disney live action movie directed by Barry Jenkins is scheduled to release on December 20.