The Lion King Prequel Adds Succession, Star Wars: Andor Composer

After making more than a billion dollars with the "live-action" remake of The Lion King in 2019, Disney is unsurprisingly returning to Pride Rock for another movie. Rather than simply adapt The Lion King 2, however, Disney is turning back the clock and working on a prequel centered around the stories of Mufasa and Scar, with Oscar-winning filmmaker Barry Jenkins set to direct. To make things even more interesting, Jenkins is bringing along his trusted collaborator Nicholas Britell to compose the score for the film.

Britell and Jenkins have worked together on numerous projects, including Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk, and The Underground Railroad, though you probably know Britell best from his work scoring Succession for HBO. While talking with The Playlist, Britell confirmed that he's working closely with Jenkins on the new Lion King movie.

"Barry and I are working together on that," he said. "And actually, we've already been working together on that for a while. I actually don't even know the official, I actually don't even know what they have on the calendar for the official release. But you know, it's a large scale project and it's a long time period of work that we're putting into it, for sure. You know, we meet up, when I'm in LA I work on it with him, when he's in New York we work on it together."

Britell has a busy schedule at the moment, with multiple Disney projects currently in the works. In addition to The Lion King, he will be scoring Andor, the new Star Wars series coming to Disney+ later this summer.

Earlier this year, Barry Jenkins opened up about his excitement to take on this new Lion King project, siting his longtime love for the original animated film.

"I grew up with this characters, they mean so much to me," Jenkins told Variety. "I think the work that Jeff Nathanson, the writer, did and going back into really helping children and anyone who ever loved this property understand what it takes. Kings aren't just born, they aren't just made. They have to become who they are through a series of events that a lot of people can relate to. So, in that standpoint, it fits very well with everything else I've done. So I feel no pressure, I just want to do a good job."

Are you interested in Barry Jenkins' Lion King prequel? Let us know in the comments!