‘The Lion King’ trailer second to ‘Infinity War’ record with almost 225 million views
Director Jon Favreau kicked off the Marvel Universe success with Iron Man, then made The Jungle Book into a live-action hit and now takes a turn at one of Disney’s biggest classics: The Lion King.
Disney dropped the first teaser for the film and the studio claims the clip racked up 224.6 million views over its first 24 hours. Inside Disney, that’s second only to Avengers: Infinity War, which picked up 238 million views over its first day across all channels, according to EW.
Using the photorealistic CGI, the video features Mufasa’s “everything the light touches” speech, and shows baby Simba being introduced by Rafiki to the gathering at Pride Rock.
Check it out below.
Theater legend Tim Rice said that “Can You Feel The Love Tonight?,” “Hakuna Matata,” “I Just Can’t Wait To Be King,” and “Circle of Life” will be included and that he’s looking forward to working with collaborator Elton John and Beyonce on a new song for the end credits.
Donald Glover (Lando in the recent Solo film) will voice the star Simba with Beyonce as Nala. Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave, Doctor Strange) will lend his voice to Scar, the iconic villain. James Earl Jones will return to voice Mafasa with Alfre Woodard (Luke Cage) voicing his mate, Simba’s mom, Sarabi.
Seth Rogen, who will voice Pumbaa and Billy Eichner completely the comedic duo as Timon.
The remaining cast is John Oliver (Zazu), John Kani (Rafiki), Florence Kasumba (Shenzi), Eric André (Azizi), Keegan Michael Key(Kamari) with JD McCrary and Shahadi Wright Joseph will play young Simba and young Nala, respectively.
Favreau is working from a script by Jeff Nathanson, adapted from the 1994 screenplay by Irene Mecchi, Jonathan Roberts, and Linda Woolverton.
Favreau, Jeffrey Silver, and Karen Gilchrist are producing, with Tom Peitzman and Thomas Schumacher exec producing, and John Bartnicki co-producing.
The Lion King will hit theaters on July 19, 2019.