Trailer for 2019's live action "Lion King" released

World
Europe

Disney has released the first teaser trailer for its live-action version of "The Lion King" online, following its TV premiere as part of the traditional Thanksgiving Day football festivities in U.S. So far the trailer has accumulated more than 34 million views on Youtube alone.

The teaser trailer has also made waves on Chinese social media. As many Chinese millennial netizens grew up watching the classic 1994 animation, the new trailer raced to millions of views on Chinese social media and was said to bring back nostalgic childhood memories.

The official poster for "The Lion King" /Twitter Photo

The film is set to release in July 2019 and Disney has started to market the film. It has huge names attached, with iconic characters being voiced by Beyonce, Donald Glover, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Seth Rogan.

Donald Glover will play Simba, Beyonce will play his love interest Nala and Chiwetel Ejiofor will play his uncle Scar while James Earl Jones reprises his role as Mufasa from the original animation.

In the trailer, we see clips from a scene which closely follows the original movie's famous “Circle of Life” opening sequence.

Computer-generated imagery (CGI) reimagines the 1994 Disney classic. /Twitter Photo

The new trailer is also inspired by original one and stresses the remarkable sense of continuity between the animated classic and the upcoming live-action adaptation.

Jon Favreau, the director of the new "Lion King", also directed the live-action of "The Jungle Book". He said that he wanted the teaser to keep expectations high. “It is a director's dream to assemble a talented team like this to bring this classic story to life," Jon told BBC News.

(Cover Photo: Twitter Photo)