The Lion King same name, with Jon Favreau directing. The following month, Jeff Nathanson was hired to write the script for the film. Favreau originally planned shoot it back to back with the sequel to "The Jungle Book". However, it was reported in early 2017 that the latter film was put on hold in order for Favreau to instead focus mainly on "The Lion King". In February 2017, Favreau announced that Donald Glover had been cast as Simba and that James Earl Jones would be reprising the role of Mufasa. The following month, it was reported that was Favreau's top choice to voice
Nala (The Lion King) to "disguise [the film's] essential boss-daddy ethos." Bacher believes that had "The Lion King" featured Nala as the Pride Lands' hero as opposed to Simba, the film could have avoided having a "patriarchal structure." Leab concluded that "the main and most problematic aspects of the film" remain that "The Lion King" "boils down to the fact that an entire group of strong female characters are unable to confront a single male oppressor; to do so, they need to be led by a dominant male." Leab continued, "It almost sucks more that Nala is such a strong ... female character and