Ed

Ed is a male hyena. He is a high-ranking member of Shenzi's clan, along with his companion Banzai.
Initially, Ed and his clan lived in exile from the Pride Lands. They formed a friendship with a member of the royal family, Scar, who recruited them to assist in the murder of Mufasa, the kingdom's reigning monarch, and his heir, Simba. On Scar's orders, Ed and his clan instigated a stampede that led to Mufasa's death. The hyenas then made an attempt on Simba's life but failed. However, they reported to Scar and his pride that Simba had died, which allowed Scar to take the throne.
With Scar as the king of the Pride Lands, the hyenas were allowed entry. During Scar's reign, a famine struck the kingdom, stripping the Pride Lands of its former glory and starving both the hyenas and the lionesses. Eventually, a full-grown Simba returned to the Pride Lands to take his place as the rightful king. Ed and his clan opposed Simba, supporting Scar's claim to the throne, but Scar betrayed the hyenas to Simba. This led them to turn on and kill him.
==Biography==
===Early life===
Ed and his clan lived in the Elephant Graveyard due to their exile from the Pride Lands. At some point in his life, Ed became close friends with his fellow hyenas, Shenzi and Banzai, as well as a lion named Scar.
===Attack on Timon's colony===
While on sentry duty, Timon became distracted and started singing. The hyena trio watched him from behind a rock, then snuck up behind him. At the conclusion of his song, the hyenas clapped sarcastically, after which Shenzi pushed him aside and started to infiltrate the colony with her companions. While many meerkats escaped via underground tunnels, Ed blocked Max's escape, which led to Max nearly being devoured by the hyenas. After the meerkats escaped, the hyenas strolled off, guffawing.
===Attack on Simba and Nala===
When Simba and his friend Nala were exploring the Elephant Graveyard, Simba laughed in a mocking way, and Ed and the other hyenas, who were hiding in an elephant skull, echoed his laughter. This made Simba back away in fear and hide behind Nala and Zazu. The hyenas then emerged from the skull, and Banzai asked Ed what he thought of the cubs. Ed only laughed crazily and joggled his head. The hyenas then accused Simba, Nala, and Zazu of trespassing, and Zazu claimed that it had been an accident.
After a brief confrontation, the hyenas began to joke about what they were going to eat. However, in the midst of the joke, Ed noticed the cubs escaping and tried to warn his friends by grunting and pointing. When he finally got their attention, Ed and his friends chased after the cubs and managed to catch Zazu, after which they put him in a geyser called "the birdie boiler."
Simba and Nala came back to rescue Zazu but ended up being chased away by the three hyenas. The cubs were soon cornered against a rocky wall. As the three hyenas closed in on them, Simba bravely tried to protect Nala by standing in front of her and roaring at the hyenas. His efforts were futile, as the hyenas continued to close in on them. Before they could reach Simba and Nala, there was a loud roar, and Simba's father Mufasa, who had been fetched by Zazu, appeared to dispose of the hyenas.
After a brief struggle, Mufasa pinned the three hyenas to the ground and told them to never come near Simba again. Shenzi and Banzai acted as if they had had no idea Simba was Mufasa's son, but when Ed was asked whether he had known, he nodded yes. This made Mufasa roar in anger. After they were released, the three hyenas scurried away.
===Plot to kill Mufasa===
After Mufasa's attack, Ed bickered with Banzai, who had been clawed in the butt by Mufasa. After Ed refused to stop laughing, Banzai attacked him. The two fought until Shenzi broke it up. When the two pulled away, Ed began to randomly chew on his leg, while Banzai blamed Ed for starting the fight.
Just then, Scar arrived, and the hyenas began to talk about how powerful Mufasa was. Whenever Banzai said Mufasa's name, Shenzi shivered, which made Ed roll on the ground in laughter. Scar was disgusted by their behavior, but Banzai insisted that he was their friend. Scar then gave the hyenas a piece of meat, telling them they did not deserve it since they had failed to kill Simba and Nala. As soon as he dropped the piece of meat, the hyenas dug in hungrily. When they were finished, Scar revealed his plot to kill Mufasa and formed an alliance with the clan.
The next day, Ed waited in a cave near a herd of wildebeests, along with Shenzi and Banzai. When Scar gave the signal, the three hyenas chased the wildebeests down into the gorge, where Scar had lured Simba. When the wildebeests were in a full-out stampede, the hyenas stopped at the top of the ridge and watched the chaos unfold below.
After Scar killed Mufasa, he sent the three hyenas after Simba, who had run away from the gorge after encountering his father's dead body. The three chased him until he catapulted himself into a dense thorn thicket. Banzai tried to stop himself from being hurled in too but got pushed in by Ed and Shenzi, who had run into him after sliding down the side of a steep cliff. Banzai climbed back out of the thicket, covered in thorns, and tried to get Ed and Shenzi to keep chasing after Simba. However, both refused, and Shenzi said that she did not want to come out looking like him. Banzai started to gingerly remove some of the thorns from his pelt and pointedly spit some at Ed, who yelped and covered his face. The trio decided that Simba was as good as dead and that they would kill him if he came back. They then left to tell Scar that they had killed Simba.
===Scar's reign===
Years later, after Scar took over the Pride Lands and let the hyenas join the pride, Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed came to Scar to complain about the lack of food. The hyenas expressed that they were starving and told Scar that the lionesses were not hunting for them. Scar told them that they could eat Zazu, who was trapped in a cage made of bones, but the hyenas were dissatisfied. Scar ordered them out of the cave, and the three started to leave, only to pause in the entryway. Banzai told Scar that they were still hungry, but Scar yelled at them to get out, and they raced away, with Ed laughing as they went.
===Battle for Pride Rock===
After this, a full-grown Simba returned to the Pride Lands. Scar, who was surprised to see Simba, glared pointedly at the three hyenas for having failed to kill Simba. Gulping nervously, they backed into the shadows. During the final battle between the hyenas and the lions, Shenzi and Banzai chased Timon into Scar's cave and trapped him in the bone cage with Zazu. Timon and Zazu were soon freed by Pumbaa, who rushed into the cave and ruthlessly beat up Shenzi and Banzai while Ed watched. The three hyenas then ran away from the cave.
The hyenas eventually cornered Timon and Pumbaa in an inner cave of Pride Rock after being angered by an offensive joke the duo made about the hyenas. In an attempt to distract the clan while Ma and Max dug a tunnel beneath the hyenas, Timon and Pumbaa tried different tactics to keep the hyenas' attention. When the trap tunnel failed, Timon jumped down between Shenzi's legs and finished the contraption himself, causing Ed and his clan to fall through the ground and plummet to the bottom of Pride Rock.
As the battle drew to a close, Simba cornered Scar on Pride Rock's summit. Scar, in an attempt to stay alive, blamed the hyenas for the Pride Lands' situation. Unbeknownst to him, the hyena trio was listening to him from the shadows. At his betrayal, they snarled and bared their teeth in fury, then backed away. Scar and Simba got into another fight, and Simba threw Scar off Pride Rock to the ground below.
When Scar landed, the hyenas approached him, including Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed. At first, Scar was relieved to see them. However, his relief turned to terror when Shenzi and Banzai recalled what he had said about them to Simba. When they asked Ed if he remembered, Ed laughed sinisterly and licked his chops. He and the hyenas then closed in on and attacked Scar, eating him alive amidst the burning flames of Pride Rock.
===Legacy===
While gathering fire at the Elephant Graveyard with his sister, Vitani, Nuka mentioned that the hyenas had run off.
==Physical appearance==
Ed is a moderately sized hyena, with a hunched back, a long neck, and thin legs. His fur is gray, while his ears, mane, and paws are black. He has several distinctions, including a speckled gray muzzle, spots on his hide, some sparse hairs on his head, and a lolling red tongue.
==Personality and traits==
Ed does not speak but rather uses laughter to communicate. He enjoys teasing Banzai and finds it hard to control his laughter. Like his fellow hyenas, he is quite clueless and unintelligent, and often gets his friends into trouble. However, he is a loyal follower and never questions orders, whether they come from Scar, Shenzi, or Banzai. Even so, his friends frequently ask for his opinion and treat him as an equal member of the clan rather than a subordinate.
Ed is somewhat slow and deranged, as he chewed on his own leg after a brief scuffle with Banzai. He tends to laugh at inappropriate times, even laughing at a joke made by Timon and Pumbaa that was directed at him and his species. Furthermore, when Mufasa pinned the hyenas to the ground and his friends tried to lie, he merely nodded idiotically.
Despite his dim-witted nature, Ed is aware of what is happening around him, as he was the first hyena to notice that Simba, Nala, and Zazu were escaping. Also, he expressed anger when Scar tried to blame the hyenas for Mufasa's death. Ultimately, though Ed is loyal and subservient, he does not take well to betrayal, as seen when he murdered his former friend Scar as an act of revenge.
==Appearances==
==Trivia==
===General===
* Ed was voiced by Jim Cummings in The Lion King, The Lion King 1½, House of Mouse, The Lion King's Timon & Pumbaa, Disney's Activity Center: The Lion King, Kingdom Hearts II, Simba's Mighty Adventure, and Disney's Animated Storybook: The Lion King.
** Cummings also voiced Scar in The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, Simba's Mighty Adventure, and Fantasmic! as well as Boaris, Boudreaux, Bruce, the Captain of the Guard, Cheetato, Lester, the mole, Mother Gorilla, Nobi, Rooster, Simon's father, Smolder, Woody Woodeater III, and Yagu in The Lion King's Timon & Pumbaa.
* Ed was animated by the following:
** In The Lion King, he was animated by Alex Kupershmidt.
** In The Lion King 1½, he was animated by Bob Baxter.
*** Baxter also animated Pumbaa, Rafiki, Timon, and Zazu in The Lion King II: Simba's Pride as well as Pumbaa and Simba in The Lion King 1½.
* The role of Ed in the stage musical version of The Lion King was originated by Kevin Cahoon.
* In the 2019 remake of The Lion King, Ed is re-imagined as a character named Azizi.
* Ed is similar to Eddie from The Lion King's Timon & Pumbaa; both are dim-witted, have lolling tongues, and submit readily to their leader. Even their names are similar.
* Ed is similar to Enos from The Lion King's Timon & Pumbaa; both are dim-witted but can execute complicated plans. Additionally, they both communicate solely through laughter.
* Ed is the only hyena to have the same voice actor in The Lion King, The Lion King 1½, The Lion King's Timon & Pumbaa, and House of Mouse. Shenzi and Banzai were voiced by Tress MacNeille and Rob Paulsen respectively in the television series.
* A teaser for The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar states that Janja's clan is descended from Ed's clan.
* Despite only communicating through laughter in the films, Ed speaks in Disney Villains: Scar #4, Fight for the Throne, and Greedy Is As Greedy Does.
* In Rainmakers, Simba and a Snake for a Friend, and The Disguised Zebra, Shenzi and Banzai feature without Ed.
* In Issue 49 of The Lion King: A Nature Fun and Learn Series, the "Puzzles" section states that Banzai and Ed are both one year older than Shenzi.
===In development===
* Ed and his fellow hyenas were originally imagined as cape dogs.
* In the January 1990 and May 1990 drafts of The Lion King, the hyenas were represented by two males named Banagi and Baasho. Unlike the hyenas of the final film, they were the true masterminds behind Scar's murder of Mufasa and subsequent rise to the throne.
* Cheech Marin and his fellow comedian Tommy Chong were considered for the roles of the hyenas. However, due to Chong and Marin breaking professional ties, Marin and Whoopi Goldberg were cast instead.
* Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella originally auditioned for the roles of the hyenas but were instead cast as Timon and Pumbaa respectively.
* Directors Rob Minkoff and Roger Allers were the ones who decided that Ed would communicate strictly through laughter. In order to do so, Jim Cummings recorded roughly 40 different laughs for Ed.
* According to production notes for The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, the hyenas were slated to appear in the film as allies of Brutus, a rogue elephant. Together, they schemed to take over the Pride Lands and force Scar's son, Kovu, to do their bidding.
* In early drafts of The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, the hyenas formed an alliance with Zira (then named Bianca).
* In an early draft of The Lion King 1½, the hyenas encountered Timon and Pumbaa in the Elephant Graveyard.
* In an early draft of The Lion King 1½, Timon, Pumbaa, and Simba's pride chased the hyenas away from Pride Rock following the final battle.
==References==
Category:Antagonists
Category:Canon articles
Category:Characters
Category:Hyenas
Category:The Lion King 1½ characters
Category:The Lion King characters
Category:The Lion King's Timon & Pumbaa characters
Category:Males