John Oliver Comments on Disney’s Secrecy Around ‘Lion King’

As many of us know by now, Marvel Studios is an incredibly secretive place, and many of the actors involved in the superhero projects are given strict instructions about how to not reveal any spoilers. Many have even joked that Kevin Feige is watching them at all times, waiting to pounce at any mention of a potential secret. As it turns out, it isn’t just Marvel that liked to keep things close to the chest, all of Disney works in a similar fashion.

The stars of Disney’s The Lion King found this out on Thanksgiving, a few hours before the first trailer for the film had aired during one of the football games. While appearing on Tuesday night’s episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, John Oliver, who plays Zazu in The Lion King, said that Disney was very strict about the pending trailer news.

“It’s my first time kind of being inside a Disney tornado,” Oliver joked. “There was an email just before the trailer was released just saying, ‘At this point during the Dallas Cowboys game, we’re going to release the trailer. Don’t say anything to anyone.’ And coming from Disney, that just sounds like a threat. Just like, ‘Don’t say anything or this will be the last sunrise you see.’ Signed, ‘The Mouse.’”

After not saying anything to anyone all day, Oliver got to sit with his family and watch the trailer when it aired on TV. Once they saw it, a couple of his wife’s family members had one major question about the credits.

“I was watching with my wife’s family, we were there for Thanksgiving,” he said. “And they played the trailer and then there’s everyone’s names, and they’re all in The Lion King font, and that’s objectively exciting. I was sitting with my wife’s sister and her cousin and it got to the end, and I thought, ‘Oh, that’s nice.’ And her cousin said, ‘Why is your name before Beyonce’s? That seems pretty f—ed up.’ Yeah, I’m not even disagreeing with that, I just think they saved the atom bomb for the end.”

You can watch Oliver’s interview with Fallon in the video below!

Are you excited for The Lion King to arrive in theaters? Could it top Disney’s other live-action movies in 2019? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

Disney’s The Lion King hits theaters on July 19, 2019.