The Lion King pays tribute to James Earl Jones in emotional new Mufasa film Mufasa: The Lion King pays tribute to the late James Earl Jones, the iconic voice of Mufasa in the original 1994 film and its 2019 remake, ahead of its December 20 release.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Jenkins revealed: "I was actually doing some early, early press, almost an hour before James Earl Jones passed.
The movie opens with Jones' renowned speech as Mufasa, first delivered in the 1994 Disney animated classic, set against a black backdrop.
A title card then appears, reading, "In remembrance of James Earl Jones".
I think for a lot of people this character and that voice is synonymous with this idea of a surrogate father, or at least the example of what a father-son dynamic should be like.
