Most of the major players in Disney’s upcoming live-action – well, CGI – remake of The Lion King are already in place, but the role of Nala is currently still vacant. Reports state, though, that Beyoncé’s involved with ongoing negotiations for the part of Simba’s leonine love interest. The issue is apparently the difficulty in navigating around the megastar’s busy schedule.
This isn’t the first time that Beyoncé has been offered a role in a Disney remake, however. It turns out she was first approached to appear in this year’s Beauty and the Beast. In conversation with Yahoo! Entertainment, the film’s director, Bill Condon, revealed that he offered Beyoncé a part in the movie. It’s not entirely clear what stage of the process the casting got to, but it seems the singer turned it down due to the lack of weight to the role.
“I even tried to get her into Beauty and the Beast, but it wasn’t a big enough part. She would have been a good feather duster.”
The part that Condon’s referring to is Lumiere’s girlfriend, Plumette. While a background character in the 1992 original, Plumette’s role is actually increased quite a bit in the new version. However, she’s still a tertiary character at best, so you can’t blame Beyoncé for turning the part down. If that’s indeed what happened, of course. In any case, British actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Doctor Who, Black Mirror) went on to play the feather duster.
It’s possible that, though she didn’t end up appearing in Beauty and the Beast, Disney kept her in mind for a much larger part in a future remake. Hence why director Jon Favreau picked her to be his Nala in The Lion King. Whether these negotiations will be able to make things work, however, we still don’t know. It might be that she ends up missing out on not one, but two Disney roles.
With or without Beyoncé, The Lion King is scheduled to arrive in theaters on July 19th, 2019.
