Disney fans got a chance to see the events that shaped an iconic royal family in Mufasa: The Lion King, which pulled the curtain back on Mufasa’s early days and revealed how he met Sarabi, first encountered Scar, and made his way to Pride Rock. The talented Tiffany Boone played the role of Sarabi in the film, and ComicBook had the chance to speak to Boone all about bringing this earlier version of the classic character to life, how much the original film meant to her personally, and if she would be up for a Lion Queen sequel.
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The Lion King is up there with the biggest Disney classics of all time, but for Boone it holds an even more personal significance throughout her childhood, and now she’s actually a part of a franchise she grew up adoring and having such a meaningful connection to.
“It’s surreal, honestly, you know, to have so many young people, and I feel like we get a lot of feedback from adults who are really moved by the film too,” Boone said. “To just have so many people reach out and be touched by the film and be creating their own memories with this one and their own attachment to this version of it. I’m still pinching myself. I’m still saying to that little girl who loved the original, like wow, this is amazing. You’re a part of this. So even just to see people I grew up with take their kids to see it, it’s beautiful. I feel really honored by the whole experience.”
In Mufasa: The Lion King, fans meet a Sarabi before she ever met Mufasa, and so it was important for Boone to establish layers to her and then bring those layers to life so fans could see the path towards where we meet her in the original film.
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“Yeah, I think it was important for me for you to see layers to her that you don’t get to see in the original,” Boone said. “You know, I’ve said that I just feel like she was just this perfect wife and mother and queen, and you don’t get to really know any of her story.”
“And so in this version, I just wanted to see and hopefully create a more complicated version of her. You get to see her be sassy and fun and fall in love all these things that you go through as a young woman to become who you’re going to become. So that’s what I wanted to show, just layers to her,” Boone said.
Boone happens to also be a huge fan of A Different World star Jasmine Guy, so I asked if there was a bit of Whitley Gilbert in her version of Sarabi. “(Laughs) Not on purpose, but if someone felt that, then great, but yes, I’m a huge, a huge Different World fan,” Boone said. “And Jasmine Guy is, like, such a hero of mine. So any comparison to her Whitley I would take for sure.”
We also ended up discussing Jasmine’s amazing work in the series Dead Like Me. “I think people just know her from a Different World, but When you see her in that (Dead Like Me), you really realize what a phenomenal actress she is. She has such range. She’s incredible,” Boone said.
Now, as for the future, one of the ideas that has been making the rounds since the film’s release is a potential sequel, though this time around it would be titled The Lion Queen, focusing on Sarabi’s story and journey. If there’s another opportunity to play in this world, Boone is more than up for it and even has some ideas on what could be explored, both in regards to Sarabi and with the larger story.
“Oh, I mean, of course I would be up for that. Who would say no to that? Yeah, I guess there’s always opportunity to, as we were saying, like The Lion King 1.5. Like the Lion Queen, what happens in between when this film ends and when the original starts,” Boone said. “And to see how she becomes a Queen, how these people who all of a sudden are in this new land, how do they adapt to it? And how does she become the wise Queen that she becomes? Because I think we’re still seeing her learn her way in Mufasa. She’s still, like, figuring it out. So get to figure it out some more, I’d like to do that. Why not?”
Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King is available now for purchase on digital retailers (Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home), and will begin streaming on Disney+ on March 26th. It will also be available on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD on April 1st.
What did you think of Mufasa, and would you like to explore more in the world of The Lion King? Let us know in the comments, and you can talk all things Disney with me on Bluesky @knightofoa!
