Image: Lemonade

For several months rumors have swirled that Jon Favreau’s remake of Lion King would feature one of the biggest stars on the planet, Beyoncé, and now we know that’s true. The Queen B took to her Facebook to not only announce her own involvement, but the rest of the cast too.

Here’s the image.


Most of the rest of these actors we know were in the film. But several are new, such as Eric Andre and Keegan-Michael Key.

“It is a director’s dream to assemble a talented team like this to bring this classic story to life,” Favreau said in a press release.


The film will use the same techniques that Favreau used for his recent version of The Jungle Book. He’ll recreate live-action with digital effects. So the animals will look real, but they’ll talk and the above actors will provide their voices.

There’s no word if Beyoncé will have any more influence on the music of the film, which was an early rumor, but Hans Zimmer will return to score this version, as he did the animated original.


At the D23 Expo this summer, Favreau showed the entire “Circle of Life” scene from the movie and it was jaw-dropping. I was literally shaking with emotion seeing how gorgeous the visual effects techniques translated to this story. I cannot wait to see how it turns out.

Jon Favreau’s remake ofThe Lion King opens July 19, 2019.

*Correction: We’ve updated the article to clarify that the film isn’t “Live Action.” It’s computer effects used to approximate live-action.