The Lion King live-action adaptation is in the works, and it has been confirmed that Atlanta star Donald Glover will play Simba, while James Earl Jones will reprise his role as Simba's father, Mufasa after voicing the character in the 1994 animation. The director of the new project, Jon Favreau, announced the exciting news on Twitter. Sharing a snap of Donald, he wrote: "I just can’t wait to be king. #Simba." He then followed the tweet with a photo of James, writing: "Looking forward to working with this legend. #Mufasa."
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Donald will play Simba
Fans were quick to praise the casting decisions, with one writing: "Wait! Did you just tweet that Donald Glover is going to be Simba in the Lion King remake? That's a fantastic pick. Now excited." Another added: "GAME CHANGING." Jon also directed the live-action remake of The Jungle Book, and will be using the same technology to bring the characters to life as in the popular 2016 film. He met the Martian actor for the first time back in December at The Hollywood Reporter's creativity conversation, and revealed that his son was already a huge fan of his, telling the star: "By the way, full disclosure: I see your face every day when I wake up my 15-year-old son because on his door is a portrait of you."
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James will reprise his role as Mufasa
2017 is looking to be a hugely busy year for Donald, who has also recently been cast as the young Lando Calrissian in an upcoming Star Wars prequel based on the early life of Han Solo. The news was announced by LucasFilm, with directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller saying: "We're so lucky to have an artist as talented as Donald join us. These are big shoes to fill, and an even bigger cape, and this one fits him perfectly, which will save us money on alterations. Also, we'd like to publicly apologise to Donald for ruining Comic-Con for him forever."