The stars of The Lion King have revealed why they weren't daunted by the prospect of remaking the Disney classic.
Speaking exclusively to Digital Spy at the European premiere of the film on Sunday (July 14), Keegan-Michael Key (Kamari), Seth Rogen (Pumbaa) and Billy Eichner (Timon) revealed that being under the guidance of director Jon Favreau made the prospect of rebooting the iconic movie less daunting.
"I didn't [have any worries]. Jon Favreau did that work for me," Keegan-Michael Key told us.
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"With the hyenas we broke it down and he just said, 'We're gonna have you guys do your own thing, we're not going to try to emulate what was done 25 years ago, let's just do our thing. I'm reimagining this part of the film'.
"And that was really helpful."
Seth Rogen added: "Honestly, when I knew Billy was who I was doing it with, I was pretty confident we would be able to create something new and funny together because I had a feeling we would be good together.
"We're both fans of each other and have known each other a long time, so it was exciting."
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"[I was daunted] at the beginning," Billy Eichner admitted. "But with Jon's guidance and Seth and I working together, we eventually found our own path.
"It was daunting at the beginning but then we just had fun we improvised a lot and a lot of the improv ended up in the movie which is cool and yeah, I'm pretty excited about it."
In fact, we thought Timon and Pumbaa were one of the best parts about the movie, and you can find out the rest of our thoughts on the film right here.
The Lion King is out on July 19.
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Isabella is a freelance journalist who has written on young women's issues, entertainment, TV and film, South Asian representation, mental health, dating and so much more. She has bylines in ELLE, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Prima, Digital Spy, Women's Health, and Harper's Bazaar, and was named 30 Under 30 by MediaWeek, PPA and We Are The City. She was also shortlisted for Workplace Hero at the Investing In Ethnicity Awards and Hero of the Year at the European Diversity Awards. Follow Isabella on Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.
With over a decade's experience in the media space, Ben started out as a freelance writer for publications such as Trusted Reviews, the Daily Star and Gamesradar among others, before eventually turning his skills towards the world of video.
Ben worked at Digital Spy between 2019 and 2024 as Video Editor, and later the site's Video Lead.
Prior to his time with DS, Ben worked with the likes of ITN Productions, Yahoo! UK, AOL, Red Bull and The V&A Dundee on a range of productions from smaller social edits to global live streams and longer form documentaries for London Fashion Week.
A survival-horror aficionado who has shared a stage with Chas & Dave, helped Charles Dance navigate the DVDs in HMV and visited Murray Walker's home (for a shoot, he didn't just turn up), Ben is not easily starstruck, and always happy to film with names big or small.
