The Lion King: Twisted Theory about Mufasa’s Death Goes Viral

The Lion King is now a beloved story for multiple generations of people – whether you saw the original 1994 Disney animated feature; the broadway play it spawned in 1997; or Disney’s 2019 “live-action” remake with CGI animals and big celebrity voices (Beyoncé, Donald Glover, etc.). Disney is going to be keeping the Lion King franchise going with the upcoming prequel film Mufasa: The Lion King. Well, it will be good to get back to the days of Mufasa in his prime: because there’s some pretty dark stuff about his death that has gone viral on social media!

Did Scar Eat Mufasa in The Lion King?!

As you can see in the TikTok above, this theory looks at the original 1990s animated Lion King movie – and one particular scene. Late in the second act of the movie, Scar (Jeremy Irons) has taken hold of Pride Rock with his gang of hyenas, and King Mufasa’s advisor Zazu (Rowan Atkinson) is kept prisoner inside the ribcage of skeletal remains, singing for Scar’s amusement. Scar sings along with Zazu at one point while making a prop of a skull during the lyric that some coconuts are “big as your head.” 

Fans like TikTok user (and soccer player) @finallyboateng could help to wonder about two important questions: 

1. What is that skull Scar is playing with? 
2. Whatever happened to Mufasa’s body after that stampede?

Making some long TikTok’ing short: It turns out that Disney animators definitely snuck a skull in there that seems to bear striking resemblance to what lion skulls look like. It also turns out that apparently, the only real animals that will eat lions are… lions.

Scar had a hand in arranging what happened to Mufasa – and it certainly is within his sociopathic purview to have had Mufasa’s body dragged back to Pride Rock to be eaten. On further thought, the scene opens with Zazu singing the tune “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen” – which suddenly hits much differently if you consider this theory. 

Disney animators and/or filmmakers have a long history of sneaking some pretty wild stuff into their animated works – there’s plenty of evidence to suggest this is one of them. At the time of writing this, the TikTok has nearly 5 million views  – with hundreds of thousands of comments – mostly from people whose childhoods and/or psyche have been ruined by the mere notion that this could be true. 

Mufasa: The Lion King hits theaters on July 5, 2024. The animated and live-action Lion King movies are streaming on Disney+.