Shenzi (2019 film)

Shenzi is a female hyena. She is the leader of a clan of hyenas.
During Mufasa's reign, Shenzi and her clan kept to the Elephant Graveyard, as they were not allowed to hunt in the Pride Lands. One day, Mufasa's young son, Simba, strayed into the Elephant Graveyard, and Shenzi ordered her clan to kill him. However, Mufasa intervened and saved Simba's life, after which he warned Shenzi to never approach his son again.
Later, Mufasa's brother, Scar, offered Shenzi's clan the chance to hunt in the Pride Lands if they helped him assassinate Mufasa and Simba. Shenzi agreed to Scar's proposition and assisted him in instigating a stampede that got Mufasa killed. However, her lackeys failed to kill Simba. Unaware that the cub had survived, Scar became the new king of Pride Rock and allowed the hyenas to invade the Pride Lands.
For several seasons, Shenzi and her clan stripped the kingdom of its plentiful resources. Eventually, a full-grown Simba returned to the Pride Lands and challenged Scar for his throne. After an extended battle, Scar and his allies lost, and Shenzi turned on Scar for betraying her clan to Simba. Together, the hyenas attacked him and ate him alive amidst a fiery blaze at Pride Rock.
==Biography==
===Early life===
Shenzi lived in the Elephant Graveyard due to the hyenas' exile from the Pride Lands. At some point in her life, she became the leader of her clan.
===Attack on Simba and Nala===
When Simba and Nala strayed into the Elephant Graveyard, Shenzi and her clan surrounded them. Zazu arrived and warned Shenzi that she would be starting a war with Mufasa if she harmed Simba. Shenzi commented that hyenas and lions were already at war and that she wanted Mufasa's bloodline to end. On her order, the hyenas attacked and nearly killed the cubs, but Mufasa arrived in the nick of time and fought the clan off. After the fight, he warned Shenzi to never harm his son again, and she grudgingly allowed him and the cubs to leave.
===Alliance with Scar===
That night, Scar journeyed to the Elephant Graveyard and struck a bargain with Shenzi: if she and her hyenas helped him kill Mufasa and Simba, he would allow them free reign of the Pride Lands. Though initially skeptical, Shenzi eventually agreed to the alliance.
The next day, Shenzi and her clan started a stampede of wildebeests that resulted in Mufasa's death. Afterward, Scar ordered the hyenas to kill Simba, and they chased the cub until he fell off a cliff. Shenzi ordered her lackeys, Azizi and Kamari, to confirm Simba's death, but they failed to carry out her command and lied to her that Simba was dead.
That night, Scar became the new king of Pride Rock and allowed Shenzi and her clan to overtake the Pride Lands. Under Scar's reign, the hyenas over-hunted the herds and turned the kingdom into a wasteland. One day, Shenzi informed Sarabi that Scar wished to see her. During the two's meeting, Scar asked Sarabi to be his queen, but she refused. As punishment, he allowed Shenzi's clan to eat before the lionesses.
Later, Shenzi searched for Nala as the lioness attempted to escape from the Pride Lands. The hyenas were ultimately unsuccessful, as Zazu distracted them and led them away from Nala.
===Battle for Pride Rock===
When a full-grown Simba returned to the Pride Lands and challenged Scar for the throne of Pride Rock, Kamari and Azizi's lies about Simba's fate were exposed, and they bowed their heads in shame before Shenzi. In the ensuing battle between the hyenas and the lionesses, Shenzi and her clan supported Scar's right to rule. Shenzi confronted Nala and declared that she had been waiting years to eat her, but Nala retorted that she was no longer a cub anymore. The two fought, and Nala managed to throw Shenzi off Pride Rock.
After her fall, Shenzi raced to the top of Pride Rock alongside Azizi and Kamari to assist Scar in his fight against Simba. However, the hyenas overheard Scar trying to blame his crimes on them, and so they abandoned him. After Simba threw Scar to the base of Pride Rock, Shenzi and her clan surrounded him. Though he tried to rally them against Simba, they informed him that he had betrayed them, and Shenzi told him that he had only ever said one true thing: that a hyena's belly is never full. At her words, the hyenas attacked and devoured Scar amidst a fiery blaze.
==Physical appearance==
Shenzi is the largest and strongest hyena in her clan. She has dark brown eyes, a heavy spotted coat, a broad but slender muzzle, a distinct triangular forehead marking, and a particularly long orange mane.
==Personality and traits==
Shenzi is a cold, cunning, and ruthless leader who is willing to do almost anything to ensure the survival of her clan. Like most hyenas, she has a voracious appetite and does not hunt with restraint or regard for the Circle of Life. Sly and opportunistic, she will cut corners and break laws in order to get what she wants, most notably when she allied with Scar so that she and her clan could have free reign of the Pride Lands. While the survival of her clan is important to her, she does not show particular care or concern for her clanmates, as she will readily endanger their lives for her cause and does not react with grief or remorse at their deaths.
Unlike her subordinates, Shenzi does not joke around or laugh. She is quite ruthless, aggressive, and cruel, as she was willing to kill two young lion cubs in order to get back at Mufasa. In particular, Shenzi hates lions, to the point that she was willing to risk a war with Mufasa so she could kill his son, Simba. Even so, she agreed to work with Scar and served as his enforcer for the sake of her clan. Ultimately, despite her loyalty and subservience to Scar, she did not take well to his betrayal and ordered her clan to kill him for his treachery.
==Appearances==
==Trivia==
* Shenzi was voiced by Florence Kasumba.
* Shenzi's name means "barbaric, uncouth, uncivilized, savage, barbarous" in Swahili.
* Concept art by Faraz Shanyar suggests that Shenzi was initially meant to more closely resemble her original incarnation.
==References==
Category:Antagonists
Category:Characters
Category:Females
Category:Hyenas
Category:The Lion King (2019 film) characters