What Could Have Been / The Lion King

The Lion King (1994)

Concept Art from King of the Jungle, which is a draft where Scar kills Mufasa by snapping his neck.

Cast and crew

• Liam Neeson, Timothy Dalton and Sean Connery were considered for the role of Mufasa before James Earl Jones was cast.
• Tim Curry was initially offered the part of Scar before the casting of Jeremy Irons, but turned it down due to scheduling commitments to Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.
  • James Caan, Robert Duvall, Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Stewart^note who was also considered for Zazu, at one point and Ray Liotta were also considered for Scar before the casting of Irons.
• Helen Mirren, Virginia McKenna and Vanessa Redgrave were considered for the role of Sarabi before Madge Sinclair was cast.
• John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, Simon Callow, Chris Barrie, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie, David Jason, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Spike Milligan, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett were considered for the part of Zazu before the casting of Rowan Atkinson.
• Joe Pesci was approached for the role of Banzai, but turned down the offer due to scheduling conflicts with A Bronx Tale.
• Tommy Chong was originally going to be the voice for Shenzi, reuniting him with his comedy partner Cheech Marin and turning the hyenas into a three man band. However, both men were not on speaking terms at the time. Whoopi Goldberg was cast in his place and the character was changed to a female once the writers discovered that hyenas are matriarchal.
• Tim Rice originally wanted Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson to voice either Timon and Pumbaa or the hyenas, as he was a big fan of Bottom. They were also considered to voice Zazu.
• Richard Curtis and Ben Elton were approached to write the film, but both turned it down as they were busy with projects of their own.
• Tim Rice initially wanted Benny Andersson to write the film's songs, having previously worked with him on Chess. Unfortunately, he was busy working on Kristina från Duvemåla, so Rice went with his second choice, Elton John.

King of the Jungle

• The story was originally known as King of the Jungle and the plot was far Darker and Edgier. It had a few variations. In early scripts the Pridelanders were called the Ndona pride. Scar was a rogue in at least one draft, but it was decided to make him Mufasa's brother as it made the film emotionally investing. One script was to be themed around a war between two prides of lions, which would be the plot of the sequel a few years later. Scar was the leader of the "Mbala" pride, with Mufasa leading the "Ndona" pride. There was also a group of hyenas, led by Banagi (who later became Shenzi), who would have served as secondary antagonists. Kwashi was a baboon similar to Rafiki, though not as wacky. Noticeably it was much more violent and incest filled than the final product (a similar concept to this, albeit Lighter and Softer, was in the first Direct to Video movie).
• Multiple characters from the King of the Jungle treatments were scrapped the final version of the first film:
  • Nala had a younger brother named Mheetu who played an important role. He was created as a character for Nala to protect from the hyenas and Scar. Mheetu was the one Scar lured into the gorge, not Simba. Simba tried to save him but failed, so Mufasa saved them. Contary to popular belief, Mheetu was tan like most cubs rather than white (he only looks white because the concept art is uncoloured). He was scrapped for being seen as an unneeded character in a film with an already large cast.
  • Simba's mother Sarabi had three sisters: Naanda (who was also Nala’s mother in these early drafts), Diku, and Dwala. They were all scrapped. Some semi-canon comics and magazines have shown that Sarabi has sisters, but they are never named.
  • Nala's father was once a character but was scrapped. An earlier idea involved having Mufasa being her father like in real lion prides, however this would have made her relationship with Simba Brother–Sister Incest.
  • There was a scrapped rock python who would have acted as Scar's Dragon and would have been voiced by Tim Curry. This would be reflected in The Lion Guard where Scar's spirit would have a snake as his Dragon, albeit a cobra rather than a python.
  • Banagi was the male leader of the hyenas in King of the Jungle. The Lion Guard later introduced a male hyena leader, despite hyenas being notoriously matriarchal.
  • Another scrapped hyena was Baasho, who was Banagi's lackey. Banagi refers to his clan as a "brotherhood", implying that they were entirely male.
  • In one script Simba was taken in not by Timon and Pumbaa, but by a group of (realistic looking) meerkats called the Komboli Rangers. Timon and his mate Tesma were a part of this group. Simba would have parted with them on his own. In a later script, Tesma was retooled as Simba and Nala's (mostly Nala's) childhood friend while Timon was Simba's childhood friend. Pumbaa (then called "Harold") was also a childhood friend of Simba's.
  • One of Simba's childhood friends was a female bat-eared fox named Bhati.
  • Kobi and her son Prita were two unused vulture characters.
  • One of Simba and Nala's childhood friends was Daabi, an aardvark who spoke as though she had a permanent case of nasal congestion (justified in that she spoke out of an elongated snout).
  • A pair of female honey badgers named Rina and Rada were supposed to appear.
• Nala's name was originally "Nadra". Pumbaa's was "Harold".
• Very early concept art shows a white cub who was probably Simba. This is commonly thought to mean that The Lion King was a ripoff or unofficial remake of Kimba the White Lion, but at this point in development, none of the Kimba similarities existed. It was still in the King of the Jungle stage.
• The Lion in the Moon was the God of the lions that was ultimately scrapped between King of the Jungle and The Lion King. He created lions (and possibly all of the animals). Sarabi had a Cut Song where she sang a lullaby to Simba about Him after Simba had his encounter with the hyenas. The comics make reference to a different god, the Great Spirit.
• In one incarnation of the King of the Jungle script, Simba had a zebra friend named Lemuta. Lemuta and Simba were playing with an aardvark friend of theirs when Lemuta spots the Ndona pride hunting his herd. Simba's mother Sarabi tries to kill Lemuta's mother, but she manages to escape. Lemuta freaks out at the realization that he's Simba's food and runs away. They don't meet again until they're adults. When Simba tries to talk to his old friend, Lemuta tries to chase him off. Simba is confused about Lemuta's behavior but his father Mufasa tells him that Lemuta is building his own harem now and that he can't be Simba's friend anymore. The Lion in the Moon made them natural enemies so that lions could eat and zebras wouldn't overpopulate.
• One early version of the movie's opening scene had the "Le Lizwe" refrain of "Busa" playing over scenes of animals heading for Pride Rock as in the final film, but without "Circle of Life" as we know it. The scene would then become a normal dialogue-laden scene. Mufasa, Sarabi, and Zazu would notice Scar's absence (and Scar would make an appearance, glaring as he returned to his cave), Zazu would then begin the ceremony, and Rafiki would appear, disrupting Zazu. Sarabi would mistake Rafiki for a hostile only for Mufasa to calm her down. Rafiki would then baptize Simba and present him to the kingdom. Around this time, Hans Zimmer and Lebo M. came up with their own opening, and the filmmakers eagerly accepted their version which became "Circle of Life".

The Lion King proper

• Concept art shows Simba with rosettes like an actual lion cub, unlike his simplified finalized design. A cub with rosettes wouldn't canonically appear until twenty years later in The Lion Guard (though Simba has them as a newborn).
• Pumbaa's characterization was very different early on if the deleted song "Warthog Rhapsody" is any indication. The song characterizes him as an accomplished, lazy and carefree slacker, with Timon seeming to be more of his sidekick. The song was cut, and the characters were redeveloped to where Timon instead would be the big slacker.
• A good portion of the movie between Simba meeting Timon and Pumbaa and him leaving for the Pride Lands was scrapped for being seen as useless filler. Simba was meant to go on adventures, meet monkey characters, and do other stuff but the writers deemed that it got in the way of the Coming of Age Story. The Lion King video game features levels inspired by these unused concepts. A gorilla that appears in one of the levels was a deleted character.
  • One scene cut for being filler took place before Nala arrived in the oasis where Simba and Timon were playing football with a grub, but Timon tossing it ended up getting the grub eaten by Pumbaa.
• Storyboards for Simba returning to the Pridelands had him running through geysers. A level in the video game features elements of it.
• In one concept for the beginning of 'Be Prepared', we could have seen Scar initially meeting the leader of the hyenas alone, which would have shown him charming her. It was cut for being much too unsettling, and of course, there were more awesome ways to show he was evil than molesting Shenzi.
• On the subject of "Be Prepared," Scar has a speaking aside at the start of the song on the soundtrack, in which he denigrates the hyenas. He clearly views them as dispensable tools, rather than deadly partners. Scar’s aside is not found in the film version of the song, since originally, this song took place before Scar had used the hyenas to try and kill Simba and Nala. Because of the plot adjustment, the song was moved and revised accordingly. The speaking aside was restored for the Broadway adaptation.
• "Be Prepared" also had the working title "Thanks To Me".
• Perhaps the most infamous deleted scene is set during Scar's rule. In this version, Scar hasn’t officially let the hyenas into the Pride Lands but is tolerating their presence and over-hunting to still honor his deal, which still has reduced the kingdom to a wasteland. However, Scar is more concerned with how nobody likes him. When Zazu points out what Mufasa had that he doesn’t, including a Queen, Scar resolves to find a Queen to side descendants. Nala arrives to confront Scar, who eagerly begins courting her. When she strikes him and refuses to become his mate, Scar orders her banished, but when the lionesses refuse to comply, he then summons the hyenas and officially reveals them as his loyal army. This is set to a reprise of "Be Prepared" as the hyenas chase Nala out of the kingdom. This sequence ended up adapted into the musical's "The Madness of King Scar", and the 2019 remake also incorporated it albeit with Scar instead trying to court Sarabi. A reprise of "Be Prepared" also featured in the musical right after "Rafiki Mourns".
• Scar was originally going to raise Simba following Mufasa's death. He would’ve been trying to kill Simba, but when spotted by others, he would’ve made it look like he saved Simba and taken him in.
• Originally the Hula dance with Timon was going to be a Saturday Night Fever-like disco dance, complete with a performance of "Stayin' Alive."
• "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" had two versions done before the final version was settled on:
  • Originally, it was going to be a comic number sung entirely by Timon and Pumbaa. This version was storyboarded and recorded. But eventually it was decided to make the song a straightforward romantic ballad after all, as Elton John and Tim Rice had intended, with Timon and Pumbaa singing only the beginning and end. John was horrified when he heard Sabella's raspy voice singing the love song he wrote.
  • The second iteration is a straightforward romantic ballad sung by Simba and Nala in their thoughts like the final film. In this one, however, Nala quickly licks Simba and the song ends with them enjoying a nice view from a mountain. This was later adapted for the 2019 remake.
• One iteration had much more explicitly implied sex between Simba and Nala, as after the conclusion of "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?", Simba wakes up from where he and Nala were sleeping and nuzzles her before leaving. In this version, he wanders off alone to begin mourning Mufasa. Later, the argument between Simba and Nala was added between the song and the "Remember Who You Are" sequence.
• After Nala, Timon and Pumbaa learn that Simba has gone back to the Pridelands, the scene originally went on longer, with Timon refusing to join Nala and Pumbaa when they resolved to go too, only to show up right behind them when they arrived in the next scene. This was later Refitted for Sequel in The Lion King 1 ½.
• A work-in-progress reel of the film's climax was much simpler. Simba returns to Pride Rock where Scar openly gloats that he killed Mufasa and siccs the hyenas on him, with Timon and Pumbaa leading the lionesses in chasing them off. Nala also would've been knocked out by Scar (this story development has actually appeared in certain stage shows at Disney theme parks around the world). From here, the final confrontation had two different possible endings:
  • In one of the most infamous deleted sequences, Scar actually overwhelmed Simba in battle and pinned him down. In this version, Scar hasn't revealed he had killed Mufasa, and only now tells him. Simba regains his will and turns the tables on Scar.
  • In the other version, Simba fights Scar to a standstill and taunts him into attacking him, using Nala's flip to knock him over the ledge.
    • Both versions then showed Scar hanging over the edge of the cliff, begging Simba for help. Simba reluctantly helped him, only for Scar to throw him off instead while he regained his footing. Though Simba survives the fall, Scar then starts laughing maniacally as the fire gradually burns him to death.
• The final scene with Simba and Nala's newborn cub (no name or gender specified) was originally going to be longer, with some comedic business in which Timon presented a bug as a gift to the cub, only for the bug to fly away, and Rafiki anointed the cub with gourd juice and dust just like he anointed baby Simba, the dust making both the cub and adult Simba sneeze. Another version had Timon getting scared away when the cub playfully swatted at him. This was ultimately pared down to just show the cub's presentation at the edge of Pride Rock.

The Lion King II: Simba's Pride

• Kiara was originally named Shani, which had multiple Swahili translations such as “curiosity,” “novelty,” “adventure” and “accident.” In other scripts, Kiara was named “Aisha” meaning “life” in Arabic.
• Kiara originally had a brother named Chaka. Chaka was later scrapped and in later drafts, Kiara was shown to be Simba’s only cub in the film. Kiara having a brother was later used with Kion from The Lion Guard.
• In early drafts, Zira was named Bianca, and was Kovu’s aunt rather than his mother. She would have raised him in exile and made an alliance with Scar’s hyena army to take revenge on Simba and his daughter. Her name was changed for not being Swahili and the hyenas were replaced with Outsider lions in the final draft.
• Kovu was originally Scar's biological cub who would have fallen in love with Simba’s daughter. In one version, he was an orphan raised by Scar’s sister-in-law Bianca, whilst in a later version, he was Scar’s son with Zira. This was changed when they realized that this made Kovu and Kiara Kissing Cousins.^note This seems to have been a rather late change in the script, as several languages (Dutch, for example) still confirm Kovu to be Scar’s biological son.
• Nuka in earlier concept art appeared to be a lot healthier, along with seemingly being more intelligent and devious than he was in the final product.
• A line for Mufasa's spirit that's recorded by James Earl Jones as seen in Making of Featurette being: "You have let your family break apart, and in doing so, you have broken the Circle of Life!” This was part of a dream sequence in which Simba laments his daughter’s relationship with Kovu and seeks Mufasa’s advice. This scene was cut very early on from the film.
• We were actually going to see Zira commit suicide by deliberately refusing help from Kiara after accidentally being knocked over a ledge and jumping into the river below so she can drown! Some of the animations of the original death scene was still used; if you watch as Zira falls, you can see the manic grin on her face right as she falls.
• Kovu originally had a slicker black mane and brighter green eyes. This was changed when it was decided not to make him Scar's biological son.
• The villain of the movie wasn’t a lion, but a rouge elephant who had it in for Simba after he humiliated him as a calf. He would’ve worked with the hyenas to use Kovu as leverage to take over the Pride Lands.
• Kiara (then-named Shani) was supposed to have a suitor who would’ve physically resembled Mufasa almost entirely, but would’ve been “Scar on the inside” to contrast with this. After seeing the attraction between Kovu and Shani, a threat to his planned marriage to Shani and inheritance of Simba’s kingdom, he would’ve allied himself with the rouge elephant and his hyenas.
• One of the deleted scenes that was removed for pacing reasons was of Kovu and Zira. As a cub, Kovu catches a bug and lets it fly away. Zira then catches it and kills it. She scolds Kovu for being too merciful.
• There were plans for Zazu (of all characters) to get a love interest and children in the film, but she was cut from the final product, presumably due to time constraints. Apparently, her name would have been Binti and she would have been voiced by Jane Leeves.
• Helen Mirren and Kathleen Turner were considered to voice Zira.
• The Outsiders originally lived in a crystal cave.

The Lion King 1 ½

• Timon's Disappeared Dad was originally a character. He was scrapped because it was felt there were too many characters in the film already. Timon's dad ended up becoming a Composite Character with Ma. Timon's dad has a buzzcut-like Tuft of Head Fur.
• "Diggah Tunnah" had an extra verse that was deleted about a character named "Fearless Buzz". He was a legendary meerkat who thought meerkats shouldn't have to hide underground. Buzz even fought off a hyena on his own, however he forgot hyenas lived in groups and ended up eaten. It was taken out because yet another character added would have made the story become too complicated.
• There was a scene where Timon and Pumbaa visit what Timon describes as an "oasis" (when it's really a dump) while looking for their dream home. It turns out they're right next to Mufasa and Simba during the scene where Mufasa describes the previous kings. The scene was removed because it slowed the movie down.
• The Elephant Graveyard scene had been very different than it was in the final film; Timon and Pumbaa, for whatever reason, would have been searching for the Lion King, Mufasa. Seeing the shadowy figure of a lion, they would have entered the Graveyard only to encounter Scar’s hyena minions and later Scar himself, who is visibly annoyed at being mistaken for Mufasa. Ironically, the 2019 remake would later feature a scene where the hyenas mistake Scar for Mufasa when he enters the graveyard.
• Storyboards for the climax show that Timon and Pumbaa were going to help Simba and his lions chase away Scar’s hyenas, winning the fight, with Ma and Max nowhere to be found, as opposed to banishing them into the fire pit where they eat Scar.