New Lion King Cast Posters Show Cast Alongside Animals

A new series of cast shots for Disney's The Lion King show a very different side to the characters, in more ways than one. The posters show almost every major member of the cast in profile, facing eye-to-eye with their animal counterparts.

The pairings posted to Disney's Twitter include Donald Glover as Simba, Beyonce as Nala, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Scar, and Alfre Woodard as Sarabi. Other shots show ensembles of characters together, like Billy Eichner, Seth Rogan, and John Oliver as Timon, Pumbaa, and Zazu, respectively.

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This is the latest in a series of live-action remakes of Disney's classic catalog. But as the characters are still computer animated and no live actors are on screen, it has instead been commonly referred to as "photorealistic." It was directed by Jon Favreau, following his successful and similarly realistic take on The Jungle Book.

Disney had released character posters in May showing each of the photorealistic animals head-on, not in profile with their human voice-actors. The original Lion King is one of Disney's top-grossing animated films of all time, and so anticipation--and expectations--are running high for the remake. Its initial teaser trailer almost matched Avengers: Infinity War in views in the first 24 hours.

The Lion King releases on July 18.