Blue Ivy Carter‘s Hollywood ascendancy continues. Carter, 12, will join mom Beyoncé in the upcoming Lion King prequel, Mufasa: The Lion King.
In her film debut, Carter, 12, will voice the role of Kiara, Simba and Nala’s daughter, Disney confirmed along with the release of the trailer on Monday, April 29. Beyoncé, 42, will reprise her role as Nala from the 2019 film while Danny Glover will return as Simba.
Others returning to voice their roles from the first film are John Kani, Seth Rogen and Billy Eichner.
The movie’s narrative will unfold in flashbacks, structured around a tale recounted by Rafiki (Kani, 80), Timon (Eichner, 45) and Pumbaa (Rogen, 42) to a youthful lion cub, highlighting one of the most illustrious kings of the Pride Lands.
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Barry Jenkins, the Oscar-winning director of Moonlight, will replace Jon Favreau with a script penned by Jeff Nathanson, known for his work on Catch Me If You Can.
“A buddy of mine, Matthew Cherry, made the short film called Hair Love that Blue Ivy did the audio book of. Starting this project and just having that in the ether, I was like, ‘Is it worth a shot? Would Blue Ivy want to do it? Would Beyoncé want to act opposite her daughter? Is it too close to home?’” Jenkins, 44, told Entertainment Weekly in an interview published on Monday. “But once we put the question to them, they both responded with enthusiasm.”
He continued: “They are a lot smarter than me, and they have a lot more going on than me, so if they were signaling to people, all good, but it was not my intention. I just thought she would do a wonderful job.”
During Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour, Carter took the stage as a featured dancer for performances of the song “My Power,” originally debuted on the singer’s The Lion King-inspired visual album, The Gift, in 2019.
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“What’s crazy is we made the film, and then the Renaissance tour happened, and I think Blue really grew up over the course of that tour,” Jenkins recalled. “So the Blue Ivy you see in this film, it’s like a time capsule, this very, very, very young stage of her life, and she got to share it with her mom. So, I thought there was some synergy. It could be beautiful.”
Jenkins said what he “loved about the script” was the reader could “really understand how a person becomes the person that they grow up to be,” adding, “Seeing Scar as a cub and being like, ‘Yo, I kind of like that guy,’ it just did something to my brain. The other element of it was, I’ve always been obsessed with why we place people on pedestals, whether it’s kings, presidents, queens, prime ministers, whatever it is.”
