The Lion King as a recurring summon, as well as a playable in the "Lion King" world, known as Pride Lands, in "Kingdom Hearts II". There the plotline is loosely related to the later part of the original film, with all of the main characters except Zazu and Sarabi. "The Lion King" also provides one of the worlds featured in the 2011 action-adventure game "Disney Universe", and Simba was featured in the Nintendo DS title "Disney Friends" (2008). Walt Disney Theatrical produced a musical stage adaptation of the same name, which premiered in Minneapolis, Minnesota in July 1997, and later opened on Broadway
The Lion King Andre, Florence Kasumba, Keegan-Michael Key, JD McCrary and Shahadi Wright Joseph joining the cast as the voices of Azizi, Shenzi and Kamari, young Simba and young Nala, respectively while Hans Zimmer would return to score the film's music. On November 28, 2017, it was reported that Elton John had signed onto the project to rework his musical compositions from the original film. Production for the film began in May 2017. It is scheduled for release on July 19, 2019. Along with the film release, three different video games based on "The Lion King" were released by Virgin Interactive in December