Production of Battle for the Pride Lands and Epilogue: An Important Coronation

**"Battle for the Pride Lands"** and **"Epilogue: An Important Coronation"** are episodes of *The Lion King: Revisited* based on *The Lion King* and *The Lion Guard*, distributed by Disney+. Both episodes are directed by Jon Favreau from screenplays by the writing team of Ford Riley and Jeff Nathanson, and feature an ensemble cast composed of many previous *Lion King* actors. They were designed as a conclusion to the storyline told in all the *Revisited* episodes up to that point.

## Development

### Background

Development of *Battle for the Pride Lands* began in early episodes of *The Lion Guard* and *The Lion King: Revisited* by introducing the Outlanders and the return of Scar as plot devices. In late 2020, Jon Favreau was announced to direct *Battle for the Pride Lands* and its sequel, *Epilogue: An Important Coronation*, with Tony Bancroft also returning as Pumbaa's supervising animator. Don Hahn served as production manager after producing *The Lion King*, and Jeff Nathanson and Ford Riley had signed on to write the screenplays for both episodes.

## Writing

### Story

While selected episodes of *Revisited* were considered set-up for the storyline of *Battle for the Pride Lands*, Kendall Michele Haney said that *The Ultimate Showdown* would kick off an "epic serialized story". *Battle for the Pride Lands* reveals how Scar acquired his namesake. The episode asserts that a strange cobra inflicted the scar under the orders of a strange lion in order to force Scar to serve them. However, there are other *The Lion King* works that explain it differently, such as *Six New Adventures*, in which a cape buffalo gave the young Scar (then named Taka) his scar, leading Taka to request to be referred as Scar from then on. According to Ford Riley, Scar's birth name was "Askari," after the first leader of the Lion Guard.

Following the positive reception of *Return to the Pride Lands*, the filmmakers of *Revisited* have said that *Epilogue* would be more of an adventure story into the world first established in *King of the Jungle* (an early draft of *The Lion King*), as well as a sequel to *The Lion Guard*. Inspirations of *Circle of Life: An Environmental Fable*, *The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King*, *Avengers: Endgame*, *Spider-Man: No Way Home*, and *Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker* were developed for the episode's additional ideas, including environmental safety through recycling, alternative energy, and conservation programs.

### Characters

The writers did not initially attempt to use characters in a way that would match with voice actor availability, instead using the characters how they wanted and then adjusting later based on scheduling constraints. To handle the number of characters in the episodes, many are split into various smaller groups early on in *Battle for the Pride Lands*. The grouping included: Simba, Nala, Sarabi, Mufasa, and initially Tiifu and Zuri; Pumbaa and the Lion Guard, which ultimately split further to just Pumbaa, Beshte, and Ono; Vitani, Kovu, Nuka, and Zira; Scar and Janja; and Timon, Kiara, Zazu, Tiifu, Zuri, and Rafiki. *Battle for the Pride Lands* commenced conclusions to the story arcs of characters, such as Timon, Simba, Mufasa, Shenzi, Fuli, and Scar.

Binga, Azaad, Pinguino, and Rani only appear in the sequel in order to preserve their debuts in *The Tree of Life*, respectively, which was released between *Battle for the Pride Lands* and *Epilogue*. Other characters, such as Kopa and Thurston, were excluded in *Battle for the Pride Lands* for "a very specific story choice". In addition, Ushari and Mufasa's appearances in *Epilogue* continue their story arcs that were established in "Battle for the Pride Lands". The concept of resurrecting Ushari and Mufasa in *Epilogue* garnered a mixed reception, with critics also noting that the decision to resurrect deceased characters would make their previous deaths pointless. The romance subplot of Tatiana and Timon in *Epilogue* was inspired by the storyline of the *Timon & Pumbaa* episode "Once Upon a Timon", while Pumbaa's delineation from the show was used for his iteration of depression. Kopa and Asante's friendship was based on their portrayals in *Friends for Life*, a German audio book inspired by *The Lion King: Six New Adventures*.

## Pre-production

### Casting

Casting calls were for voice actors expected to reprise their *Lion King* roles. *Battle for the Pride Lands* stars the *Lion King* trilogy actors Matthew Broderick as Simba, Ernie Sabella as Pumbaa, Nathan Lane as Timon, James Earl Jones as Mufasa, Andy Dick as Nuka, Lacey Chabert as Vitani, Jason Marsden as Kovu, Whoopi Goldberg as Shenzi, Cheech Marin as Banzai, Jim Cummings as Ed, Julie Kavner as Ma, and Jeremy Irons as Scar. *Battle for the Pride Lands* also sees the Pride Landers teaming up with the Lion Guard, including Max Charles as Kion, Bryana Salaz as Anga, Maia Mitchell as Jasiri, Joshua Rush as Bunga, Diamond White as Fuli, Dusan Brown as Beshte, and Atticus Shaffer as Ono, respectively.

Voice actors reprising their roles from *The Lion Guard* include Gabrielle Union as Nala, Eden Riegel as Kiara, Andrew Kishino as Janja, Khary Payton as Rafiki, Nika Futterman as Zira, Sarah Hyland as Tiifu, Madison Pettis as Zuri, Christian Slater as Ushari, Ana Gasteyer as Reirei, Common as Kiburi, Landry Bender as Makini, John O'Hurley as Hadithi, Renée Elise Goldsberry as Dhahabu, and Blair Underwood as Makuu. Characters from their guest appearances in the show were reported to possibly team up, and early drafts featured Sinbad as Uroho, Ron Funches as Ajabu, C.J. Byrnes as Tamaa, and Kristofer Hivju as Kenge; Hivju ultimately reprised his role for *Kia: The Lion Queen*, while Sinbad returned to the role of Uroho in *Epilogue: An Important Coronation*.

Alfre Woodard, John Oliver, Eric André, Keegan-Michael Key, and Penny Johnson Jerald returned to voice Sarabi, Zazu, Azizi, Kamari, and Sarafina from Jon Favreau's photorealistic remake of the first film. Jerry Stiller was to reprise his role as Uncle Max, but died in 2020, before recording any lines. Old vocal recordings of Stiller from *The Lion King 1½* and other related media for the *Lion King* franchise were used as his character's dialogue.

Voice actors who returned in *Epilogue* include: Broderick, Sabella, Irons, Lane, Union, Jones, Woodard, Schon, Payton, White, Mitchell, Marin, Chabert, Marsden, Kishino, Oliver, Rush, Shaffer, Kavner, Charles, and Pettis. They were joined by Rob Lowe as Kopa, Jaime Camil as Pinguino, Behzad Dabu as Azaad, Peyton Elizabeth Lee as Rani, Shohreh Aghdashloo as Janna, Fiona Riley as Binga, and Kimiko Glenn as Chuluun. In April 2022, Tress MacNeille was reported to reprise her role as Tatiana from "Once Upon a Timon", an episode of *The Lion King's Timon & Pumbaa*; the involvements of MacNeille as Tatiana and Jeff Bennett as the Duke Meerkat were confirmed in June 2022. Ashleigh Ball was set to reprise her role as Asante from *Six New Adventures*, marking the first time a character introduced in a *Revisited* spin-off television series appears in the *Revisited* film, but was dropped. Billy West reprised his role as Sharla from "Home is Where the Hog is", an episode of *The Lion King's Timon & Pumbaa*. *Epilogue* was dedicated to Lynette DuPree, the voice of Ma Tembo who died in February 2023.

## Post-production

### Animation

Mercury Filmworks, the lead vendor on *The Lion Guard*, provided the animation, which were supervised by The Moving Picture Company execs Robert Legato, Elliot Newman, and Adam Valdez.

### Music

Hans Zimmer's musical score for both episodes referenced themes from previous *Lion King* media by Nick Glennie-Smith, Don Harper, and Christopher Willis, as well as his own themes from both versions of the original film. In addition, four of the songs from *The Lion King* and one song from *The Lion Guard* were reprised in *Epilogue*: "Circle of Life / Nants' Ingonyama", "Can You Feel the Love Tonight", "Be Prepared", "Hakuna Matata", and "Utamu". "Never Too Late" was written by Tim Rice and Elton John to this episode's credits.