Director Jon Favreau has announced that Community actor and Childish Gambino rapper Donald Glover will be playing the role of Simba in the upcoming remake of The Lion King. OOH.

It has also been revealed that James Earl Jones will be returning to his role as Mufasa, the ill-fated fatherly figure that he played in the 1994 original.

The Hollywood Reporter writes that Jon Favreau first met Donald Glover back in December, when he they chatted about his son listening to his music.
Jon Favreau brought the live-action remake of The Jungle Book to cinema screens last year – and it was a huge success for Disney, grossing over Dhs3.5 billion worldwide.
The Lion King could be happening sooner than we thought, taking precedence over The Jungle Book 2, if news from December is anything to go by.

Talking to CinemaBlend, Robert Legato, Jon’s visual effects supervisor on The Jungle Book, confirmed they’ll be working together on The Lion King. “Yeah, actually, I am. … It’s the very next one [we’re doing],” he said.

“We’ve already started the plans, and all of the various things, and the updates to the various ways that we filmed The Jungle Book, to add to and extend the art form a little bit more in Lion King, which is going to be another live-action-looking movie.”

Originally appeared on Cosmopolitan.co.uk