Beyoncé & Donald Glover ‘Feel the Love Tonight’ in New Live-Action 'Lion King' Promo
It’s been a banner year for Disney so far — the iconic studio has already racked up hits with the live-action remake of Aladdin and its animated Toy Story 4, the latter of which is currently burning up the box office. And a new TV promo featuring Beyoncé and Donald Glover singing a classic Lion King duet will surely make fans even more excited about what could be the most anticipated Disney release of 2019: director Jon Favreau’s live-action remake of the iconic 1994 animated hit The Lion King.
Disney teased the remake’s upcoming July 19 release date on Sunday with a brand new 45-second TV spot. In the first few moments of the video clip, a familiar scene plays out — King Mufasa (James Earl Jones) sits on a bluff overlooking the kingdom with his young lion cub, Simba. As Mufasa gives Simba priceless pearls of wisdom, a song slowly builds in the background. Various scenes from the movie flash by, culminating in images of grown-up Simba nuzzling a lioness that fans all know to be Nala.
And, obviously, that’s all well and good. The most thrilling part of the spot, though, has to be hearing the voices of Nala and Simba together for the first time. Beyoncé and Glover, respectively, bring new magic to Elton John and Tim Rice’s Oscar-winning song “Can You Feel the Love Tonight.”
It’s official — we do feel the love tonight, especially considering this is the first trailer for the live-action remake that features the characters singing one of the original songs. At this point, it’s unclear how many of the animated version’s beloved tunes will make it into Favreau’s take but, per Cinema Blend, it will be a musical that features songs we all know and love.
What does that mean for the rest of the soundtrack? Well, let’s see. Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen might be flexing their pipes, as the hilarious pair is set to play the lovable-yet-laughable duo of Timon and Pumbaa. This potentially means they could be singing everyone’s favorite Lion King song, “Hakuna Matata” (presumably along with Glover). Can we also say we are 100 percent here for it if Chiwetel Ejiofor, in character as Scar, belts out the ominous “Be Prepared”?
Fortunately, we won’t have to wait too much longer. Beyoncé, Glover and the whole gang will be bringing Pride Rock back to life in just a few short weeks.