It’s time to return to the Pride Lands and find out why Simba just can’t wait to be king since the official cast line-up for Disney’s live-action version of The Lion King has been announced. Literally, Beyoncé is voicing Nala, Donald Glover is Simba, and James Earl Jones, the OG voice of Mufasa will be playing Simba’s dad yet again. CAN YOU HEAR US SOBBING?

Now, knowing that Quen Bey herself will be a part of this movie already has so many people blocking out all of summer 2019 so they can be free to run to the theater to see this movie in action. And while I personally super curious since the live-action version of Beauty and the Beast lived up to every expectation I ever had, I’m still a bit confused on this whole live-action Lion King idea. Live-action means taking an animated movie and well, bringing it to life with live-actors on screen. In TLK, there are only animals throughout the entire film and obviously, we’re not going to be seeing actual animals on-screen talking to us. So that means we’ll be getting all CGI lions, warthogs, meerkats, baboons and every critter who lives in the Pride Lands. Obvi this comes as no surprise since the movie is being directed by Jon Favreau, the same guy who directed the live-action version of The Jungle Book. So clearly he knows what he’s doing when it comes to creating realistic CGI animals, but still, this is really considered live-action then? Isn’t it just another version of animation in a way? Maybe I’m getting a bit ahead of myself here since basically everyone else is just freaking out over the casting news and yeah, same.

The 1994 version of Disney’s classic is still the highest-grossing hand-drawn animated movie of all time, so I do have high hopes for this new edition. I would be lying to you if I said I can watch the scene when Scar pushes his brother Mufasa to an untimely death and a young Simba is there to see what happened to his dad without unleashing a bucket of tears, so I already know this remake will introduce a whole new audience to this memorable story. If you need me, I’ll be over here mentally preparing for these epic versions of “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” and “Circle of Life” we’re going to be getting now.

the lion king

WATCH: All the Disney Classics That Are Getting the Live-Action Treatment:

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