This 'Lion King' and 'Avengers: Infinity War' Fan Mashup Will Break Your Heart

The first trailer for Disney's live-action version of The Lion King debuted today, giving [...]

By Jenna Anderson

The first trailer for Disney's live-action version of The Lion King debuted today, giving audiences an updated version of the tale they know and love. As some would expect, that new update is already bringing along some pretty heartbreaking pop culture parodies.

BossLogic recently shared a new piece on social media, which mashes up The Lion King with a pivotal moment in last year's Avengers: Infinity War. The fanart, which you can check out below, imagines Mufasa throwing Simba over Pride Rock, similarly to how Thanos (Josh Brolin) sacrificed Gamora (Zoe Saldana) in exchange for the Soul Stone.

The fanart is simultaneously both heartbreaking and a little genius, down to Rafiki serving as a version of the Soulkeeper. While it's safe to assume that The Lion King won't take any unexpected dark turns - beyond, you know, the ones in the original movie - the correlation between the two is certainly interesting.

When it comes to Thanos and Gamora, that aforementioned scene in Infinity War certainly broke the hearts of many when the movie debuted in theaters last year. And in a way, the moment sparked a discourse about the various ways that that father-daughter relationship has been portrayed in the MCU and other media.

"We always want to run at the relationships that are growing and developing in the MCU and the fact that Gamora and Nebula were children of Thanos and the fact that they had this very oppressive relationship with him was just so exciting to us." co-director Anthony Russo told ComicBook.com. "It was such a rich area to mine. Sort of a perverse, abusive father-daughter relationship. It was... we had to run at that as storytellers. It's just a much more powerful motivation for Thanos and a more powerful relationship for Thanos."

"The power that it took Thanos to click his fingers, he's so dramatic that if you look closely at the film and the damage of the gauntlet," Joe Russo explained in an exclusive interview with ComicBook.com. "You look closely at the very last scene, it damages his arm dramatically. And that moment when he clicks his fingers sends him into this ethereal plane inside of the Soul Stone where as part of his quote unquote hero's journey in the film, he has one last moment to convey a sense of guilt about what he's done. It illustrates what a complicated character he is. So, to clarify, it's a spiritual representation of her and obviously that's something that the Soul Stone has power to do. But really it's there to illustrate his pain and his guilt. I wouldn't read much more into it beyond that."

What do you think of this Lion King/Infinity War mashup? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Avengers: Endgame will debut on April 26th. The Lion King will land in theaters on July 19th.

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