While many fans of the popular 1994 film “The Lion King” may still harbor sad feelings over the death of Mufasa at the hands of his brother Scar, they just might side with the bad guy after watching the upcoming Barry Jenkins-directed iteration, “Mufasa: The Lion King.” We know, we know—egregious...but just hear us out!
If you haven’t been paying attention, the forthcoming film is an origin story on how the beloved animated feline king came to power. But it most notably explores the complicated relationship between the eponymous hero Mufasa —who didn’t come from a royal bloodline — and his “brother” Scar who actually did.
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As a result, viewers may look at the original film and the shocking betrayal through a new lens and walk away feeling that Scar may have been justified in his actions after all as star Kelvin Harrison Jr. who voices Taka a.k.a. Scar argued previously back in November.
However, Jenkins is not too quick to side with the villain. Speaking to The Root ahead of the film’s release, the acclaimed director explained that while he can completely empathize with Scar’s rough journey, he isn’t giving the infamous bad cat a pass and said that the “justification doesn’t hold water.”
“In the one sense, if you only live by the social structures that you’re given, that we inherit— then you could say ‘I’m a descendant from a royal line that means I deserve to be king. You know? If you accept that world view, then you could say there’s a justification for you being upset that you’re not the king,” Jenkins explained. “But what I love about the story, the script, that’s telling is that: that is not the only way to achieve the skills, the qualities, that makes one worthy of being a leader. That makes one worthy of being a king, that makes one worthy of being a king.”
The decorated director then drew a parallel between his own non-traditional path to Hollywood and Mufasa’s non-traditional path to becoming king. Jenkins further argued that anyone, from anywhere who isn’t born on the pathway to those feats but earns them through their own merit should have a shot just the same as someone who was in line to earn it through the other avenue. But, being the well-rounded director that he is, Jenkins offered a sort of “glass half full” perspective on Scar’s betrayal explaining:
“The world failed Taka. His father failed Taka. The structure that he was told was the structure of the world, the order that he was told— it failed Taka...maybe that’s what Kelvin means when he says Taka is ‘justified.’ I don’t accept that (laughs). But I’m trying to look inside of it and I love how the movie is complex enough to house all those different things at once.”
“Mufasa: The Lion King,” starring Harrison Jr., Aaron Pierre, Tiffany Boone, Blue Ivy Carter, and more hits theaters everywhere Dec. 20.
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