‘Lion King’ Director Reassuring Everyone On James Earl Jones’

The Lion King‘s world premiere earlier this week sparked an overwhelmingly positive outpouring of first reactions. People were terribly excited about the breathtaking visuals, and while Beyonce always nabs attention, and Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen apparently stole scenes as Timon and Pumbaa, a lingering issue weighed over the event. James Earl Jones, who has reprised his role as the voice of Simba’s dad, Mufasa, was notably absent on the Los Angeles purple carpet.

Those considerations had been additional stoked when Jones didn’t seem in a brand new official forged picture that features Beyonce, Eichner, and Rogen in addition to Donald Glover (Simba), Shahadi Wright Joseph (Young Nala), JD McCrary (Young Simba), Keegan-Michael Key (Kamari), Eric André (Azizi), Florence Kasumba (Shenzi), Alfre Woodard (Sarabi), Chiwetel Ejiofor (Scar), and John Oliver (Zazu). Indeed, the omission of Jones’ spectacular presence seemed like an enormous deal, so director Jon Favreau spoke with USA Today to say all the pieces is simply positive with the 88-year-old icon. Really and really:

“He was incredibly gracious to participate in this. I don’t know what I would have done had he not. He’s based on the East Coast. This is something that takes a lot out of you to do/ So his participation was geared more toward his performance.”

Favreau beforehand opened as much as USA Today about how Jones signing onto the remake was what opened up the door to individuals taking it significantly. He additionally admitted that he was deeply affected by listening to the veteran actor learn those self same traces once more. Yet within the case of promotion, it appears that evidently Jones merely needed to take it just a little bit straightforward and never endure grueling days of interviews, together with all of the accompanying journey and trouble. Hey, James Earl Jones has earned a break. Everyone please have a look at Beyonce and Donald Glover as an alternative,

Disney’s The Lion King arrives on July 19.

(Via USA Today)