| Photo: HBO |
Of the many upcoming live action remakes of classic animated Disney movies, one of the most anticipated movies is The Lion King. The animated took the world by storm in 1994 and is still a fan-favourite till date.
The Lion King is set to follow in The Jungle Book‘s footsteps and treat audiences to realistic-looking CGI animals acting out a fantastic tale. The Lion King‘s cast is stacked with big entertainment names, and now we can add John Oliver to that group, as he’ll portray Zazu.
Thanks to The Wrap, we’ve learned that John Oliver has been tapped to voice Zazu in The Lion King remake. Like his animated counterpart, the new Zazu will be a red-billed hornbill who serves as the “dignified and uptight” adviser to Mufasa and later Simba. Mr. Bean himself, Rowan Atkinson, originated the role in the ’90s animated movie.
While John Oliver is best known in the realm of news satire for his work on The Daily Show and currently on Last Week Tonight, he’s built a solid resume of voice work in recent years, including the first two Smurfs movies, The Simpsons, Bob’s Burgers, Robot Chicken, Rick and Mortyand the upcoming Amusement Park. Oliver is also known for recurring on Community as Ian Duncan.
Directed by Jon Favreau (who also helmed The Jungle Book remake) and written by Jeff Nathanson,The Lion King cast includes Donald Glover as Simba, Billy Eichner as Timon, Seth Rogen as Pumbaa and James Earl Jones reprising Mufasa.
Roles yet to be cast are Scar, Rafiki and the hyena trio, but we will let you know as soon as we have more info about them.
The new Lion King movie will be released in theaters on July 19, 2019.