Summary

Collider’s Perri Nemiroff sits down with Mufasa: The Lion King director Barry Jenkins and songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda.

The sequel tells the story of how a young Mufasa first met his friend and brother, Taka, voiced by Aaron Pierre and Kelvin Harrison Jr.

In this interview, Jenkins and Miranda discuss the virtual production tools used for the film, crafting an original soundtrack, and their own found families within the industry.

For Disney’s sequel, Mufasa: The Lion King, they tapped Academy Award-winning writer and director Barry Jenkins (Moonlight) to guide this original story to the big screen, as well as Grammy-winning songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda (Encanto), who’s no stranger to the wonderful world of Disney. In addition to a stellar vocal cast, this duo worked their magic for an origin story that will reintroduce audiences to a beloved character, and Collider’s Perri Nemiroff had the opportunity to chat with them all about it.
In Mufasa, Aaron Pierre and Kelvin Harrison Jr. lend their voices to the young orphaned cub who would one day become king of the Pride Lands and Taka, the heir to a royal bloodline. The two lions share a brother’s bond as they embark on an epic journey together that will ultimately reveal how their paths diverge in radically different directions. The sequel brings back The Lion King’s Donald Glover, Beyoncé, Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner, and John Kani, and introduces Blue Ivy Carter as Kiara, Mads Mikkelsen as Kiros, Keith David as Masego, and more.
During their conversation, Jenkins and Miranda discuss Pierre’s nuanced take on the voice originally made famous by James Earl Jones, the new tools Jenkins will take with him to future projects (“Moonlight Part 3”), their own found families, and the research and work Miranda put in for the movie’s all-original soundtrack. You can watch the full interview in the video above or read the transcript below.
From ‘Moonlight’ to ‘Mufasa,’ It’s Always About Character for Barry Jenkins

“I love conversations, whether they’re verbal or non-verbal …”

PERRI NEMIROFF: Barry, what is something about your approach to directing that stays the same from project to project, but then also, what is something about Mufasa that called for something new given it’s a completely different style of filmmaking?
BARRY JENKINS: One thing that stays the same is it’s about characters. I love conversations, whether they’re verbal or non-verbal, because some conversations involve no words, and you can see from the movement of the camera, from the relationship of the characters, how that conversation feels, what the emotion is. The audience can intuit what is happening. On Mufasa, it was about taking these virtual production tools and finding a way to do the same thing. Part of that was just getting as much of the environment built, the sky, all those different things, and then putting it into action on stage with the cinematographer, with the animators, and just, I don’t know, coming up with this petri dish of movement.
Is there any kind of reverse effect you think will happen, where making something in this style helped you tap into a different corner of directing that you never even realized was there, that you can now carry back over to your live-action work?
JENKINS: Yeah, I think definitely. We start the film with all the voices, so directing the actors’ purely, purely vocal performance was really interesting. And then directing the blocking on purely, purely physical performance was really interesting, as well. Your mind clicks into this different mode. But I think beyond that, too, using these tools to sort of create an environment, create a lighting schematic, get all these things in motion, and then come in with actors with the camera. You can do it both in this virtual production and you could do it in live-action. Matt Reeves used it on The Batman, Greig Fraser used it on Dune 2, and we will use it on Moonlight Part 3 [laughs], whatever we do next going forward, because it really gives you a head start on understanding how the characters are going to interact with the environment.
Lin-Manuel Miranda Opted Not To Listen to ‘The Lion King’ for ‘Mufasa’

“Lion King is so much a part of our bloodstream.”

Image via Disney

Lin, of all the new songs in this movie, which came to you the quickest, where it was like the song magically appeared, but then I also want to know, which song in the film required the most workshopping to perfect?
LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA: Oh, that’s a great question. Honestly, the answer to your first question is the last song because I wrote pretty consecutively. I started with “I Always Wanted a Brother” and kind of worked my way through. And what an incredible privilege to get to write to this moment where Taka emotionally has this turn, without giving away spoilers — it’s a pretty heightened emotion that came tumbling out — because we’d done the groundwork, and Barry and his team had done the groundwork to set up that moment.
I think the one that took the most care and had the most levels of iteration was probably “Milele.” It’s tough describing paradise [laughs], so I actually listened to a lot of spirituals. I listened to a lot of church music to sort of figure out what kind of vibe I was going for, and then I also left a lot of space in the melody because I knew I wanted Lebo M to come in and bring his incredible choral harmonies and African harmonies to just take it to the next level.
Because you just brought up listening to other music for inspiration, is there any particular original song from The Lion King that you found weighing on your mind most while crafting these new songs?
MIRANDA: No. Again, I feel like Lion King is so much a part of our bloodstream. Not only that 1994 original, but the musical, thanks to the genius of Julie Taymor and Lebo M and Mark Mancina. It’s one of the longest-running Broadway musicals of all time, so I didn’t need a refresher course in Lion King. I’ve listened to it so much over the years, so, no, not really. What was great was I felt like Jeff [Nathanson]’s script was so clear as to what the moments were that it was just about serving that.

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Barry, I’m just obsessed with Aaron [Pierre] and Kelvin [Harrison Jr.]. I think they’re two of the greatest actors, and I think everyone needs to know how special they are. Can you remember the very first thing you saw in each of them that signaled to you, “Not only would you two be perfect for the roles of Mufasa and Taka, but you’ll also be good collaborators for me?”
JENKINS: With Aaron, I first saw Aaron on stage in London at the Royal Shakespeare performing Othello, and I just knew there was something about him. He had this energy. It’s a kind of theater where you have to project not just vocally, but physically, like really throw your image across the space, and I felt like he just did that, and yet he preserved the nuance of the performance he was giving. And his voice is just amazing. We’re not trying to imitate the voice of James Earl Jones, but you have to believe his voice could become the voice of James Earl Jones.

Image via Disney

With Kelvin, when you watch the 1994 film, there’s just something very special about the way Jeremy Irons performs that character. There’s a hurt, there’s a woundedness, there’s a bitterness. Despite all the anger and the evilness, you can tell there are deep wells of feeling there, and Kelvin just really embraced that, like the deliciousness, the fun, the menace of it. I just thought, “Oh, these guys as a pair, they’re going to really bounce off one another really well.”
Barry Jenkins and Lin-Manuel Miranda on the Importance of Found Family

“I can deeply relate to the themes of found family in this film”

Image via Disney

I have a person question for both of you inspired by what happens in the movie. In general, I love stories about found family, and I also know found family can be absolutely vital in this industry. Early on in your careers, can you name someone who filled that role in your life, someone you met that made you feel like you belonged here and you can thrive in this industry?
JENKINS: I’m still working with all my friends from film school — James Laxton, Adele Romanski, Mark Ceryak, Joi McMillon, our cinematographer, editor, producers. I’m still working with all these people. And honestly, Moonlight wouldn’t have happened without Adele Romanski calling me up and saying, “I want to work with people I love on things they care about.” And that was it. “Let’s find the film that does that.” So, I can deeply relate to the themes of found family in this film. I think it’s the only reason why I’m sitting here talking to you right now.
MIRANDA: Yeah, and all the full-circle things you’re describing resonate with me so much. Tommy Kail was someone I met the week after I graduated from college. He was someone who, when I was working on my first show, In the Heights, not only encouraged me to keep writing and was the only person giving me a deadline in those early days when I was still teaching at my old high school, but was also great at saying no when the wrong opportunity presented itself, which is so hard when you’re young and you just want anyone to put on your show. He was like, “No, I think we should just keep working on it, making it better.” And all these years later, I was just in Hawaii, where he’s directing the live-action Moana. So, the full-circleness of that is just staggering.
Mufasa: The Lion King opens in theaters on December 20.

Mufasa, a cub lost and alone, meets a sympathetic lion named Taka, the heir to a royal bloodline. The chance meeting sets in motion an expansive journey of a group of misfits searching for their destiny.

Director

Barry Jenkins

Writers

Jeff Nathanson

Sequel

The Lion King (2019)

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