Dishing on the significance of Beyonce's return and casting the singer's daughter for the prequel, director Barry Jenkins shares, 'I thought there was something really lovely about having this mother and daughter get to play together.'
- Apr 30, 2024
AceShowbiz - Beyonce Knowles and Blue Ivy Carter's casting for "Mufasa: The Lion King" is a big thing, not only for Beyhives but also for fans of "The Lion King" franchise. Dishing on their roles in the upcoming movie, director Barry Jenkins says they have a "few," but "impactful" scenes.
"The two of them together, the few scenes that they have," the Oscar winner tells PEOPLE after announcing Blue Ivy's involvement in the movie. He teases, "You'll just see, I think it's going to be really impactful for the two of them."
The "Moonlight" helmer also explains why casting the mother-daughter duo really worked, "I thought there was something really lovely about having this mother and daughter get to play together, to work together."
Beyonce will reprise her role as Queen Nala from "The Lion King (2019)", while Blue Ivy will voice the character's daughter Kiara. Revealing the "long process" of making the prequel, Barry shares, "There was such a long process of making this film that the 'Renaissance' tour happened and we started making this film back in 2020 or 2021, long before" the release of Beyonce's "Renaissance" album.
"I feel like Blue grew quite a bit over the course of that tour," he says of the 12-year-old, who frequently appeared onstage with her mother during the tour. "The movie is kind of like this snapshot, this time capsule of a moment in their lives that I think is really beautiful. And it absolutely worked for the film."
Barry goes on noting that the return of Beyonce along with other original voice actors from the 2019 movie, including Donald Glover, Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen, "was very important" to him, screenwriter Jeff Nathanson and the filmmaker team. "She is Nala, and she was down to work," says the director, calling her "the queen."
He gushes that the singer-songwriter's 2020 visual album "Black Is King", which was inspired by and coincided with the previous "Lion King" movie, is "evidence" of Beyonce's connection to "this mythic thing, this fictional thing that in some way does reflect something of culture on the continent [of Africa]."
"She is a performer and an actor who had been a part of this world," he continues. "And the biggest thing was framing her in a context of [motherhood] and watching her, both on the screen and behind the screen, get to be a mother."
As to how Blue Ivy's voice fits his perception of the lion cub Kara, Barry claims, "The quality of her voice, I just thought it felt like this character."
"The Lion King" prequel dives deep into Mufasa's upbringing and his relationship with Taka, who later becomes the infamous Scar. Aaron Pierre voices the young Mufasa, with Kelvin Harrison Jr. taking on the role of Taka.
"This magnificent tale of friendship, love, and legacy, while furthering my work chronicling the lives and souls of folk within the African diaspora is a dream come true," Barry said on Monday, April 29. It is set to open in U.S. theaters on December 20.
