Disney’s ‘Mufasa: The Lion King’: Who Is the Voice of the Legendary King?

The first Lion King film following the passing of renowned actor James Earl Jones, who voiced the iconic role for the first time in 1994, is Mufasa: The Lion King. The torch is being carried forward by who?

With a title card that reads, “In remembrance of James Earl Jones,” director Barry Jenkins doesn’t waste any time in honoring Jones in Mufasa: The Lion King.

Jones most recently provided the voice of Mufasa in the 2019 live-action/CG hybrid adaptation of The Lion King. Before that, the well-known actor provided his unique bass-baritone voice for The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride, the 1988 follow-up to the first hand-drawn Lion King.

At age 93, Jones passed away on September 8. The legendary actor made sure his vocal portrayal of Darth Vader, the iconic evil from Star Wars, would endure eternally before he passed away.

According to Vanity Fair, Jones gave Disney-owned Lucasfilm the rights to employ artificial intelligence technology developed by Respeecher, a Ukrainian tech start-up, to replicate his voice in 2022.

Disney, however, has managed to continue the brand without him with Mufasa: The Lion King.

The role of Mufasa has thus been passed on to actor Aaron Pierre, although Disney is not promoting Pierre as Jones’ replacement.

Pierre is merely providing the character’s voice in the new movie at a much earlier period of Mufasa’s life.

“The Lion King: Mufasa” Displays Two Mufasa Versions

Like its predecessor, Mufasa: The Lion King is a prequel film that takes place prior to the events of 2019’s The Lion King and combines live-action and computer-generated imagery.

The logline for the film reads, “Mufasa, a cub lost and alone, meets a sympathetic lion named Taka, the heir to a royal bloodline. The chance meeting sets in motion an expansive journey of a group of misfits searching for their destiny.”

In essence, Mufasa: The Lion King provides answers to a number of concerns raised by the original Lion King film, such as how Taka, who later became Scar, and Mufasa met and what transpired before the two lions were bitterly divided.

Mufasa: The Lion King, which is told in flashback through Rafiki’s (John Kana) narrative, first presents Mufasa and Taka as cubs (voiced by Braelyn Rankins and Theo Somolu, respectively), before they develop into Aka (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) and Mufasa (Aaron Pierre) as adolescents and young adults.

Prior to voicing Mufasa, Pierre collaborated with Barry Jenkins, the director of Mufasa: The Lion King, on the critically acclaimed 2021 Prime Video serial The Underground Railroad.

In 2024, Pierre also starred in the popular Netflix original film Rebel Ridge and as Malcolm X alongside Harrison’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in National Geographic’s anthology miniseries Genius.

Pierre said in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly that Jones had influenced not just his role in Mufasa: The Lion King but also the new Mufasa actor’s life in general.

“I was massively inspired by James Earl Jones’ — the great James Earl Jones’ — original portrayal of Mufasa,” Pierre told EW. “Just for a moment, outside of the context of Mufasa: The Lion King, James Earl Jones, for me, has always been an enormous inspiration. He’s the top of the mountain. It doesn’t get higher than James Earl Jones for me.”

Pierre felt a strong need to do well even if he was portraying Mufasa at a different point in the character’s existence.

“I think any fear, any nerves that I felt, which of course I did feel, they actually served me because I was portraying an adolescent version of this great king who is so wise and has everything together and is the pinnacle of his community and celebrated and championed,” Pierre told EW.

“I like to say that, in this film, we get to meet these characters who we love so much in their adolescence and they’re not quite in their bodies,” Pierre added. “They’re kind of wearing shoes that are two or three sizes too big that they’ve got to grow into.”

Mufasa: The Lion King opens nationwide in theaters on Friday.