The Lion King Play Almost Had The Strangest Alternate Ending

Hall-of-Fame theatre director Julie Taymor may have made one of the most successful shows of all time in The Lion King, but it apparently was almost a wildly different show to the one audiences have flocked to for decades.

During a recent speech, as reported by Time, Taymor revealed that Simba almost never returned to become king at all, but instead headed to Las Vegas, where he was forced into gladiatorial combat.

...No, really.

"In my original idea… [Simba] doesn't go back at all. That never happened," Taymor said. "He goes to the desert. And in the desert, he comes out of the jungle… And he sees Vegas."

Taymor said she planned to introduce a new villain named Papa Croc, who had struck a deal with Scar to buy up the water rights in the kingdom and funnel it to a desert oasis, which would be a Lion King-ized version fo Vegas. Simba, finding Croc as a father figure, would be manipulated into participating in the gladiatorial arena.

Luckily for all involved, Disney hated the idea and something more like the source material was worked out...although Taymor still says it would be fun to make the original.