Movies
Blue Ivy Voices Beyoncé’s Daughter In Disney’s Lion King Prequel Mufasa
She is her mother’s daughter on and off screen.
Blue Ivy Carter continues to walk the impressive line of following in her parents’ impressive footsteps while also walking her own path, no easy feat for a child who has grown up completely in the public eye. Somehow, at just 12 years old, Blue Ivy is already a cultural icon in her own right. And about to add “voice actor” to her resume with her role in Disney’s Mufasa, the upcoming prequel to Lion King.
The new movie, which is directed by Moonlight filmmaker Barry Jenkins, explores Mufasa (voiced in the original 1994 animated Disney movie The Lion King by James Earl Jones) and his relationship with his younger brother Scar (originally voiced by Jeremy Irons) before they become rivals as adult lions. While the movie is set to be a prequel, the story is told in flashbacks, with wise and magical mandrill Rafiki telling Kiara, the daughter of King Simba and Queen Nala who is voiced by none other than Blue Ivy herself, the story of her grandfather Mufasa in flashbacks. Queen Nala, by the way, is voiced again by Beyoncé, which means that mother and daughter will be voicing mother and daughter in a truly meta moment.
The first teaser for Mufasa looks stunning, and Mufasa’s story, as told to Kiara, is all about a lion “without a drop of nobility in his blood” who came along and “changed our lives forever.”
The official synopsis of Mufasa notes that, “Simba, having become king of the Pride Lands, is determined for his cub to follow in his paw prints while the origins of his late father Mufasa are explored.” A fun storyline for Blue Ivy and Queen Bey, particularly as she has been following in her mom’s “paw prints” more and more in recent years. Blue Ivy, who is rather notably a Grammy winner for her work on her mom’s 2020 song “Brown Skin Girl,” spent last summer dancing as part of Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour, managing to pull in a fan base of her own, in fact.
Now at just 12 years old, Blue Ivy is voicing a big part in a Disney movie alongside her mom. Barry Jenkins, the director of Mufasa, told People that watching Beyoncé “both on the screen and behind the screen, get to be a mother — and how that affected and impacted for the better the work that we were all doing — was just really awesome.”
Truly, the circle of life.
Mufasa premieres in theaters on Dec. 20, 2024.
