Mufasa director Barry Jenkins would only return to Lion King on one condition

Mufasa: The Lion King was already a huge departure from director Barry Jenkins’ usual repertoire, but would he return for another round at Disney? It all depends on one thing. 

Jenkins is best known for his indie masterpieces, including his Oscar-winning 2016 drama Moonlight and his 2019 movie adaptation of If Beale Street Could Talk.

Stepping into the world of Disney marked a bold shift for the filmmaker, who took on directing duties for Mufasa: The Lion King – a prequel/sequel to the 2019 photorealistic remake of the animated classic. 

Dexerto caught up with Jenkins ahead of the release of the new movie, where we asked whether he’d be up for returning to this world in the future. 

Barry Jenkins discusses potential Disney return after Mufasa: The Lion King

The answer is potentially, but on one condition: if the script matches the quality of Mufasa’s. “ If the script was as good as this one, possibly,” Jenkins told us.

“You know, I wouldn’t have made this film in this style if the script wasn’t just absolutely great. And so if there was a script that came through my door that required stop-motion animation, possibly, I would do that as well.”

The screenplay was the main reason the filmmaker took on Mufasa: The Lion King in the first place. “I did not expect so much of what happens in this film,” Jenkins continued. 

“I thought Jeff Nathanson, who wrote the script, did a really wonderful job of bringing a new layer of complexity to these ideas of good and evil as exhibited in Mufasa and Scar, and really showing how the world played a role in shaping how these characters became the people that we met in 1994, as voiced by James Earl Jones and Jeremy Irons.”

Disney

When asked about the biggest challenge of directing the Disney movie, Jenkins reflected on how the story itself isn’t too big of a leap from his usual work.

“It’s a departure only in the sense that these characters exist. The other things I’ve done, they haven’t been a sequel or a prequel, and you’re discovering those characters for the first time,” he explained. 

“Really, the biggest difference was just the way the film was made. Thematically, I thought it was very much relevant and related to the work that’s come before. And I thought it would be  really interesting to see how these new tools would sort of fuse with our voice, particularly because the themes were so similar. 

“So, I think the challenge was just learning a new technology; learning a new set of tools to tell a story visually. But then once we got deep into the process, we very quickly realized, ‘Oh, this is like using anything else.’”

Mufasa: The Lion King is in cinemas now. You can read about the movie’s James Earl Jones dedication, Mufasa voice star Mads Mikkelsen’s thoughts on a Hannibal revival, and our roundup of the best movies of 2024.