The Lion King (franchise) order to defeat the Lion Guard and take over the Pride Lands. In 2016, it was announced that Disney is developing a "Lion King" remake with Jon Favreau directing. Reports stated that animation styles will be similar to Favreau's 2016 film "The Jungle Book" and will shoot it back to back with "The Jungle Book" sequel. The film's voice cast will feature Donald Glover as Simba, James Earl Jones reprising his role as Mufasa, and Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen as Timon and Pumbaa respectively. The movie will be produced by Fairview Entertainment. In April 2017, Disney announced that the
Nala (The Lion King) University of Waterloo's Kinema, Vicky Wong believes that Nala reinforces the film's "take your place" motif, reminding main character Simba of his responsibilities. In his book "Retelling Stories, Framing Culture: Traditional Story and Metanarratives in Children's Literature", author John Stephens credits Nala with teaching Simba about responsibility – "the lesson the hero must learn before he can become an adult". Film critic James Berardinelli identified Nala as "The Lion King"'s "sole significant female character." Including Nala, "The Lion King" has only three major female characters in comparison to the film's total of nine male ones. Shepherd University's Emmylou Allen observed