Donald Glover will be the new Simba, but Mufasa will be a familiar face

The original Mufasa is back, too.
By Sasha Lekach  on 
Donald Glover will be the new Simba, but Mufasa will be a familiar face
Simba has been chosen. Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images for AFI

Can you feel the love tonight? Well, it's all up in Jon Favreau's Twitter feed.

The director announced Friday night that Donald Glover will be playing Simba in the live-action remake of the beloved Disney classic The Lion King alongside the actor who voiced the original Mufasa.

The Twitter announcement had Glover (Atlanta) fans swooning and tossing as many Lion King GIFs at Favreau as possible. James Earl Jones, who voiced Simba's ill-fated father Mufasa in the original cartoon, will be back in the same role.

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Not much else is known about the movie from Walt Disney Studios. The movie, expected out around 2020, might be similar in style to Favreau's Jungle Book remake from last year.

It seems fitting Favreau referenced the beloved song "I just can't wait to be king" to announce Glover's role -- the new film will include songs from the 1994 cartoon movie. Fans on Twitter were clamoring for Glover's musical act, Childish Gambino, to remix the iconic tune.

So now who's going to play Timon and Pumbaa? Twitter's armchair casting directors have some suggestions:

Topics Disney Film

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Sasha Lekach

Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.


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