First look photo from Disney’s live-action prequel MUFASA: THE LION KING

Disney has released a preview photo of their upcoming live-action prequel film, Mufasa: The Lion King. The photo shows Mufasa as a young lion standing on top of a seemingly desolate mountain. The film is directed by Moonlight‘S Barry Jenkinsfrom a screenplay by Jeff Nathanson. Krypton star Aaron Pierre will provide the voice of Mufasa in the new film, with Kelvin Harrison Jr. dubbing Scar.

Not much information has been shared about the film, but we know it will be an origin story about Simba’s father.

Jenkins previously spoke about the film, saying, “I grew up with these characters, they mean so much to me. I think the work that Jeff Nathanson, the writer, has done and going back to really helping kids and anyone who loved this property understand what it takes. Kings aren’t born, they’re not just created. They have to become who they are through a series of events that many people can relate to. So, from that perspective, it fits very well with everything else I’ve done. So I don’t feel any pressure, I just want to do a good job.”

He continued, “My agents send me a lot of scripts. When this one arrived, super top secret, I was very skeptical. I read the script and about 40 pages of which I turned to Lulu [Wang] and I said, “Holy shit, that’s good.” And as I kept reading, I got further and further away from that part of my brain that said, “Oh, a director like you doesn’t make a movie like this,” and I allowed myself to get to the point where these characters, this story, it’s incredible. What really pushed me over the edge was James, my cinematographer, said, “You know what?” There’s something really interesting about this way of filmmaking that we haven’t done and not many people have done.’ That’s when I went back to the powers that be and said, ‘I’d love to do this, but I need to be able to do what I do.'”

Disney shared a teaser trailer for the film last year at the D23 Expo, which showed Mufasa as a puppy and features the story narrated by Timon and Pumbaa.

The framing for the framing does it again Jon Favreau direct of The Lion King it was beautiful, but just a retelling of the animated film. This new movie will have the benefit of a completely new story, so I hope it will be fun for fans to watch.