Barry Jenkins Says Directing Disney’s ‘Mufasa: The Lion King’ Was Not His Thing: “I want to work the other way again, where I want to physically get everything there.”

Mufasa: The Lion King is a prequel to Disney’s live-action version of The Lion King. The movie will focus on Mufasa’s early life, though the full story hasn’t been revealed yet. It’s expected to show more about Mufasa and Scar’s relationship and how it became so tense. Timon and Pumbaa will also be back, with Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen playing their roles again.

Barry Jenkins, the director, recently revealed that he isn’t eager to dive back into the CGI technology used for the movie.

“When I took this job, the idea was ‘What does Barry Jenkins know about visual effects? Why the hell would he do this movie? Why would he be making The Lion King?”

“I think part of that I found very invigorating. People make these things, you know, with computers. So anybody should be able to do this. Anybody, right? There’s nothing physically that says I am incapable of doing this.”

He admitted taking the job as “work for hire,” partly to secure steady work in Los Angeles for three years, where he lives with his wife, filmmaker Lulu Wang. “I needed to slow … the fuck … down,” Jenkins said, explaining that he and his wife were often traveling to different cities for their jobs.

Jenkins shared this week that he almost turned down the project. When Disney first sent him the script.

“My thought was, Oh, I’ll just give this a few days and I’ll call my agent and tell them I’ve read it and I’m not going to do this project.”

He and Wang went on vacation, and he completely forgot about it. When he got back, he remembered:

“OK, shit, that’s right! I have to call my agents tomorrow and remind them that I’m not going to do this project.”

He planned to read just five pages of the script but ended up reading 50. “I turned to Lulu and said, ‘Holy shit, this is good,’” he remembered.

Turning the script into a digital film was more challenging. The CGI production didn’t involve sets or costumes and was shot on an empty soundstage.

“It is not my thing. It is not my thing. I want to work the other way again, where I want to physically get everything there. I always believe that what is here is enough, and let me just figure out what is the chemistry to make alchemy? How can these people, this light, this environment, come together to create an image that is moving, that is beautiful, that creates a text that is deep enough, dense enough, rich enough to speak to someone?”

The Moonlight director said he aimed to bring his style to Mufasa, using long, unbroken shots, though Disney sometimes felt they were too “slow.” He shared a story about animators accidentally creating a scene where it looked like the camera operator lost their balance. While the team initially removed it, Jenkins told them to keep it in.

“Don’t smooth the shit out,” he said. “We want just something that has texture, something that feels organic. And sometimes that can be the hardest thing to dial in because every single blade of grass has to be created by someone. But you ultimately don’t want everything to feel like it’s been created by anyone. You want it to feel like it naturally arose.”

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Mufasa: The Lion King is scheduled to be released in the United States by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures on December 20, 2024.

Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner, John Kani, and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter reprise their roles from the remake; new cast members include Aaron Pierre, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Tiffany Boone, Mads Mikkelsen, Thandiwe Newton, Lennie James, Anika Noni Rose, and Blue Ivy Carter in her feature film debut.

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