Disney President Wants The Lion King To Become A Saga Like Star Wars
Written by on June 6, 2023
The Lion King could become the next Star Wars-esque franchise, teases the President of Walt Disney Pictures. Based on Hamlet, the Bible, and Disney’s own Bambi, The Lion King released in 1994 and was a massive box office success that quickly became one of Disney’s most iconic and beloved family films. The animated movie was followed by the photorealistic remake from Jon Favreau in 2019, which was an even bigger box-office success. A photorealistic prequel, Mufasa: The Lion King, is currently in the works from Moonlight director Barry Jenkins.
As The Lion King prepares to expand on-screen, the President of Walt Disney Pictures is teasing his plans for the future of the franchise. During a recent interview with The New York Times, Sean Bailey said The Lion King could become its own epic saga like the Star Wars franchise, which has been owned by Disney since 2012. Read his full comment below:
The Lion King could expand into a big, epic saga, like the Star Wars franchise. There’s a lot of room to run if we can find the stories.
What’s Next For The Lion King Franchise?
Mufasa: The Lion King, scheduled for a summer 2024 release, will follow Mufasa’s life as a young cub and explore the origins behind his ultimately fatal feud with his brother Scar. Based on Bailey’s recent comments, the Mufasa-Scar origin story is just one of many The Lion King franchise hopes to tell which, like the Star Wars franchise, will likely be told through a combination of theatrical releases and streaming shows on Disney+. Though The Lion King movies have been big box office successes, turning the IP into a cultural sensation like Star Wars is easier said than done.
Following the success of the 1994 film, Disney tried and largely failed to launch a larger franchise with two direct-to-video follow-ups – The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride in 1998 and The Lion King 1½ in 2004. There were also two short-lived television series, Timon and Pumbaa and The Lion Guard. The successful 2019 remake gave The Lion King a second chance at becoming a big franchise, but whether it becomes an epic saga like Star Wars will, as Bailey says, hinge on finding the right stories that are worthy of being told.
Source: The New York Times
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